Zy^ 





Class. 
Book. 
CopyriglitN". 



Fjf.T 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 




dMr C/Uniy>era CJer 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

AN HISTORICAL SKETCH OF CALIFORNIA 
AND HER MISSIONS 



BY 

MARIA ANTONIA FIELD 




SAN FRANCISCO 

THE PHILOPOLIS PRESS 

MDCCCCXIV 






COPYRIGHT 1914 

BY PHILOPOLIS PRESS 

SAN FRANCISCO 



r. 



/r>^ 



©1A38C323 




SAN FRANCISCO. CALIFORNIA 

SEP 141914 



TO THE REVERED MEMORY OF 

JUNIPERO SERRA 

AND OF 
MY GREAT GRANDPARENTS 

ESTEBAN AND CATALINA MUNRAS 

THIS BOOK IS 
AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED 



ACKNOWLEDGMENT OF GRATITUDE 

In producing this book I wish to thank my Mother, who 
wrote for me in modern notation the music of the hymns of the 
Mission Fathers which are contained in this work, and gave me 
much welcome information ; also Rev. Raymond M. Mestres, my 
zealous parish Priest, successor and compatriot of Junipero Serra 
and the Mission Padres, for valuable data, and for allowing me 
access to the early archives of San Carlos Mission and of the 
Mission Church of Monterey. 

MARIA ANTONIA FIELD 

Monterey, California, June i, 1914 



CONTENTS 

PAGE 

TRANSLATION OF THE NAMES OF THE MISSIONS XIV 

TRIBUTE TO JUNIPERO SERRA AND THE MISSION PADRES I 

CHAPTER I 

JUNIPERO SERRA, LEADER OF THE HEROIC BAND OF SPANISH MIS- 
SIONARIES OF CALIFORNIA. HIS COMING TO SAN FERNANDO, 
MEXICO, THENCE TO CALLFORNIA 4 

CHAPTER II 

BRIEF SKETCH OF THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA AND OF THE 
FOUNDING OF THE MISSIONS. HOSPITALITY OF THE MISSIONS. 
CARE AND BENEVOLENCE OF THE MISSIONARIES TOWARDS THE 
INDLANS II 

CHAPTER III 

MORE ABOUT SAN CARLOS MISSION AND MONTEREY 28 

CHAPTER IV 

CALLFORNIA UNDER SPANISH RULE 36 

CHAPTER V 

CALIFORNIA PASSES FROM SPANISH TO MEXICAN RULE. SECU- 
LARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS 42 

CHAPTER VI 

CALIFORNIA PASSES FROM MEXICAN TO AMERICAN RULE 49 

CHAPTER VII 

MISSION ANECDOTES AND HYMNS 53 



CONTENTS— (Continued. ) 



CHAPTER VIII 

RETROSPECTION OF THE WORK OF THE SPANISH MISSIONARIES, 
EXPLORERS AND SETTLERS AND THEIR PLACE IN CALIFORNLA'S 
APPRECIATION 6o 

CHAPTER IX 

REV. RAYMOND M. MESTRES WRITES HISTORICAL DRAMA "FRAY 
JUNIPERO" 72 

APPENDIX 

A LETTER OF JUNIPERO SERRA'S — THE MEANING OF CALIFORNIA 

MISSIONS. DANCES OF EARLY CALIFORNIA TIMES 74 



c9 



PREFACE 

In presenting this modest volume to the public, I wish to 
call the attention of my readers to the following facts. Firstly, 
my humble work is a work of love — love simple and unalloyed for 
the venerable Spanish Missionaries of California and for the noble 
sons and daughters of Spain who gave such a glorious beginning 
and impetus to our state. Being a direct descendant of pioneer 
Spaniards of Monterey, I take a particular interest in California's 
early history and development and as my family were staunch 
friends of the Missionary Fathers and in a position to know the 
state of affairs of those times, and to family tradition I have added 
authentic knowledge from reading the earliest archives of San 
Carlos Mission, as well as other historical references, I feel I 
can fearlessly vouch for the truthfulness of my little work. Sec- 
ondly — while fully appreciating the sympathy and interest of many 
charming and intellectual characters who grace California to-day, 
it must be admitted that there is a sadly ignorant or misinformed 
number who scarcely seem to know who Spaniards and their des- 
cendants are, judging from the promiscuous way the term "Span- 
ish" is used, and what is the result of this among many? Prejudice, 
and absurd misunderstanding of the golden days of Spanish Cali- 
fornia as well as of the Spanish race and character. It is far from 
being my wish to offend, but I wish to present correct historical 
facts. Thirdly — there is no pretense to consider this brief sketch 
a complete or detailed history, but only a truthful outline of the 
heroic and chivalrous Mission days. 

Maria Antonia Field. 



TRANSLATION OF THE NAMES OF 
THE MISSIONS. 

1. San Diego. — A Spanish form of Saint James, who is the Patron Saint of 

Spain. 

2. San Carlos. — Saint Charles. Mission San Carlos and the Royal Chapel 

of Monterey were so named in honor of Saint Charles the Patron 
Saint of King Carlos III under whose reign the mission was founded. 

3. San Antonio de Padua. — St. Anthony of Padua. 

4. San Gabriel. — St. Gabriel (the Angel of the Annunciation.) 

5. San Luis Obispo. — Saint Louis, Bishop. 

6. Nuestra Senora de los Dolores. — Our Lady of Sorrows. 

7. San Juan Capistrano. — Saint John Capistrano. 

8. Santa Clara. — Saint Clara. 

Q. San Buenaventura. — Saint Bonaventure. 

10. Santa Barbara. — Saint Barbara (whose feast is commemorated on Decem- 

ber 4, the date of the foundation of the Mission.) 

11. PuRisiMA Concepcion. — Most Pure Conception (of the Blessed Virgin 

Mary). This feast is celebrated on December 8, the day on which this 
mission was founded. 

12. NuESTRA Senora de la Soledad. — Our Lady of Solitude. (In the Cath- 

olic Church the Blessed Virgin Mary is venerated under this title to 
commemorate her solitude from the time of our Saviour's death until 
His Resurrection). 

13. S.A>fTA Cruz. — Holy Cross (so named in honor of Our Saviour's Passion). 

14. San Jose. — Saint Joseph. 

15. San Juan Bautista. — Saint John, Baptist (whose feast occurs on June 24, 

the day this mission was founded). 

16. San Miguel. — Saint Michael. 

17. San Fernando, Rey de Espana. — Saint Ferdinand, King of Spain. 

18. San Luis, Rey de Francia. — Saint Louis, King of France. 

19. Santa Ynez. — Saint Agnes. 

20. San Rafael. — Saint Raphael. 

21. San Francisco Solano. — Saint Francis Solano. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 



TRIBUTE TO JUNIPERO SERRA AND THE 
MISSION PADRES. 

BY MARIA ANTONIA FIELD. 

Read at the Crowning of the Serra Statue, Monterey, Nov. 23, 191 3. 



The fickle world ofttimes applauds the rise 
Of men whose laurels are but vainly won, 
Whose deeds their names could not immortalize 
For their soul-toils were wrought for transient ends; 
But heroes of the Cross, they truly great 
Shall Hve, their halo shall no hand of fate 

Have power to rob, albeit oblivious years 

May veil the radiance of their glorious works, 

Or slight their excellence, their light appears 

But brighter, stateher in its splendor calm. 

Or hke the flowers that sleep through winter's snow 

To bloom more fair, their lives' pure beams shall glow 

With greater brilliance and sweetly gleam 
As lodestars in the firmament of worth; 
Such is the memory whose holy stream 
Of noblest virtue, valor, truth and Faith, 
Illumes our path and stirs our souls today, 
Immortal Serra by whose tomb we pray! 

What peerless aureole wreathes his saintly brow? 

What stately monument doth bear his name? 

Let this admiring thousands tell us now! 

Let youthful hps pronounce his name with love! 

Let California proudly sing his praise! 

Let scions of fair Spain their voices raise, 

And tell of him to whom so much we owe, 

Tell of his interceding power with God, 

His strong and lofty soul his children know, 

His prayers where Carmel's River flows so clear; 

O this his aureole, this his monument. 

The lasting kind which ne'er will know descent. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 



Another lesson must the worldy leam, 

From him who sought nor praise nor fame; 

His birth, ten score agone, and still we turn 

To him in reverence, his name is sweet 

As vernal bloom, his life shows forth God's might, 

Through him this soil received Faith's warm sunlight! 

This beauteous land was strange, unknown and wild, 
Spite all its treasures, lordly trees and flowers; 
For tribes with pagan rites its wastes defiled, 
Till came Spain's noble band of godly men. 
Explorers true and zealous priests who gave 
Their lives' best years, forgotten souls to save! 

'Tis just we venerate each hallowed stone 
Which rears the wond'rous "Temples of the West"; 
The tears, the toils, the nightly vigils lone; 
The pilgrim-journeys of Saint Francis' sons. 
The rescued souls by lustral waters cleansed, 
The wealth of hospitaUty dispensed. 

All this and more if but their walls could speak, 
Would tell this day; and we in whose veins flows 
The fervent blood of Spain, to us each streak 
Of light which doth reveal a picture true 
Of gentle friar and lovely vanished times 
Is tender as the Angelus' sweet chimes. 

Well may each Mission have a holy spell, 
And Serra's name become a household word, 
What marvels can each yellowed archive tell 
Of him and of his martyr-spirit band. 
O faithful, dauntless hearts! What brilliant suns 
Of that great galaxy of Spain's brave sons ! 

We love their saintly lives to ponder o'er, 

While childhood's fireside tales come back to us. 

And memory unfolds her precious store. 

The bygone glories of the Mission towns, 

The grand old hymns sung at sweet Mary's shrines 

The Spanish color rich as luscious wines 

Of Mission vineyards, and the festive hours 

So full of hfe yet innocent and good, 

When blessings seemed to fall as welcome showers. 

The Indian tribes were ruled with Christian love, 

And shared the sons and daughters of Castile 

Their loved Franciscan Fathers' patient zeal! 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 



But still we love each altar and each cross 
Of these dear fanes; e'en as departing rays 
Of sun doth kiss the crags outlined with moss, 
We love to linger by their altars' light. 
But oh fair Carmel, she of Missions Queen 
What guarding spirits hover here unseen! 

Sweet Carmel, center of the hero-band, 
What holy treasures hold thy sacred vaults? 
Junipero and others! Here we stand 
In awe of all thou hast been and art still! 
Cruel times took glory, splendor, power 
From Missions all, but not their priceless dower. 

Religion, love and all we hold as dear, 

No hand can tarnish and no might destroy, 

And from each hallowed altar ruddy, clear. 

Still bums the mystic lamp, for God is there! 

The cross-crowned towers tell that all is not dead. 

E'en though more splendid times have long since sped. 

And like a glowing ember in the night 
Our Lady's love has burned through every change; 
'Tis thus the Missions ever saw the light 
Through labors, ripened harvest-joys and wrongs; 
Their noon-sun splendors of well won renown 
Will shine their glorious heritage to crown. 

O Saintly Serra we implore thy prayer. 
Thy dauntless spirit sowed the "mustard-seed" 
Which grew as if by miracle of wonder rare, 
Upon this now rich land which thou did'st till, 
O let they mantle on thy clients fall 
Who on thy gracious aid do humbly call. 





CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 



CHAPTER I. 

JUNIPERO SERRA, LEADER OF THE HEROIC BAND OF SPANISH 
MISSIONARIES OF CALIFORNIA. — HIS COMING TO SAN 
FERNANDO, MEXICO, THENCE TO CALIFORNIA. 

T UNIPERO SERRA, whose name and labors 
may be termed a compendium of Christian 
virtues, was born on November 24, 17 13, 
in Petra, a village of the picturesque Island 
of Majorca, on the northeastern coast of 
Spain, and a part of the Province of fair 
Catalonia, one of the most valuable and beautiful por- 
tions of Spain. This child, around whom our story- 
clusters was baptized on the day following his birth, 
and received the names of Miguel Jos6. His parents 
were poor people from a material standpoint, but gifted 
with a rich heritage of the noblest, and sublimest char- 
acter; qualities which make the Spanish peasant so 
delightful. 

From his tenderest youth, Miguel ]os6 evinced an 
ardent desire to enter the priesthood and displayed a 
zealous missionary spirit. His pious parents placed no 
obstacle in the way of their gentle boy's vocation, and 
being too poor to pay for his education, the Church did 
it for them. At the age of sixteen, Miguel Jose left his 
father's small estate and began his studies in his native 
village, completing them at the Franciscan College of 
Palma, the Capital of the Island of Majorca. He made 
rapid progress, and a briUiant future opened before him, 
while his virtuous quahties were noted by all with whom 
he came in contact. A proof of his worth may be seen 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 5 

from the facts that he was ordained before he attained 
his majority; also taught in different schools as professor 
of theology and received the degree of doctor soon after 
his ordination. The fame of his eloquent preaching and 
persuasive oratorical powers spread not only throughout 
Spain but reached other European countries. Still 
Junipero Serra (as he was known by his own choice after 
an humble disciple of Saint Francis of Assisi, noted for 
his charity) was not dazzled by his brilliant mental gifts, 
and his thirsting desire to evangelize the heathen savage 
of the New World grew apace with his fame. He declined 
the offer to become the Court preacher and other eccle- 
siastical dignities, which he would have been entirely 
justified in accepting, and practiced those virtues which 
clung to him with even more perfect maturity throughout 
his life; heroic virtues which enabled him to undertake 
wonderful things. In him too were noted those sweet 
simple qualities invariably found in great and holy men 
and women, such as gentleness, amiability, a tender 
affection for children and a love for the beautiful in 
nature; sun, moon, stars, flowers, birds, the woods and 
ocean, all found responsive chords within him. In a 
few brief lines we have endeavored to convey an idea of 
Serra's character, let us now follow his steps in company 
with the band of heroic workers who accompanied him 
in his voyage across the dark Atlantic, and his apostoHc 
journeys through Mexico and California to "break the 
bread of life" to the unfortunate heathen. Among the 
notable band of missionaries was Father Francisco 
Palou, life-long friend and co-laborer of Father Junipero 
Serra. 

But why did these heroes choose Mexico and Cali- 
fornia as the vineyards of their labors? Why did they 
not go to Africa or other heathen shores? Here is the 



6 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

answer: Spain and all Europe were filled with stories 
of the New World since the discovery of America by 
Columbus in 1492, and several other Spanish discoveries 
in later years, among which must be remembered that in 
1 52 1, Hernando Cortes, one of the great Spanish explorers 
of the sixteenth century, explored the hitherto unknown 
land of Mexico, and as Spain always accompanied her 
conquests and explorations with her missionaries to 
evangeHze the heathens, at the time that Father Junipero 
Serra set sail for the New World, which was in 1759, 
there were in Mexico an archbishopric and several missions 
conducted by Spanish priests, among them a well estab- 
lished Franciscan College in San Fernando, a settlement 
in the northern part of Mexico, which the Spanish ex- 
plorers and missionaries so decided to name after Saint 
Ferdinand, a King of Spain, who lived in the thirteenth 
century. And to this College, Father Junipero Serra and 
his companions came after a perilous voyage of nearly 
one year; for the date of their arrival was January i, 
1760; and here they began their labor! Of the nine years 
which Junipero Serra toiled in Mexico, six were spent in 
Sierra Gorda, some distance north of San Fernando, 
and one of the wildest and roughest of those half explored 
regions. And what marvels attended the labors of 
Serra and the other self-sacrificing sons of Saint Francis 
here! With Junipero Serra at the helm, the good priests 
learned some of the Aztec dialects in order to convert the 
savages. Then what followed? With the greatest pa- 
tience the missionaries acquitted themselves to the task 
of teaching the classic, cultured language of Spain to 
these poor aborigines, whose languages like those of the 
still cruder California Indians, did not contain expres- 
sions for even the simplest words of scripture or of the 
liturgy of the Church. And can we wonder at this? But 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 7 

what were the astonishing results of the good priests' 
labors? They were truly G od- wonders ! Daily were 
recorded numerous conversions, and at the close of six 
years many Indian congregations of those regions could 
be heard singing the ancient Latin hymns of the Church, 
and in poor but intelligible Spanish supplying in their 
prayers and conversations what was wanting in their 
dialects. It was while at Sierra Gorda that Junipero 
Serra became afflicted with a painful sore which broke 
out on his right leg and which never healed in all his 
eventful and laborious career. Many historians allude 
to this sore as a ^ 'wound," but no record is extant to indi- 
cate it as such, the most authentic conclusions being that 
this sore was due to natural causes greatly augmented 
and brought on by the hardships and climatic conditions 
he encountered in this missionary field. 

The average person would think Junipero Serra and 
his companions had surely satiated their thirst for mission- 
ary labors during the nine long toilsome years they spent 
in Mexico, far, far away from loving home, affectionate 
kindred and the Old World culture to which they bade 
farewell when the last glistening silhouette of the Spanish 
Coast vanished from their view in 1759, but not so! 
Their pilgrimage was but begun! The pilgrimage which 
was to blossom heavenly and earthly blessings as beauti- 
ful and countless as the flowers which jewelled the slopes 
and valleys they traversed. The monstrous undertaking 
begun so gloriously, blessed with the benison of prayers, 
sacrifices, tears; blessed later with superhuman success 
and crowned with an immortal halo for endless days! 

Here we will make a slight digression for the sake of 
our story. In 1548, just twenty-seven years after Cortes 
discovered the land of Mexico, Cabrillo's expedition had 
sailed up the Coast of California, and in 1602 Sebastian 



8 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

Vizcaino had made further discoveries accompanied by 
two Carmelite priests, and landed on the shores of Mon- 
terey. Both of these expeditions, however, were aban- 
doned and California remained the "mysterious vineyard," 
as it was called. But Vizcaino drew a map of California 
placing upon it the harbor of Monterey, and wrote glowing 
accounts of the beauty of the spot. On Point Lobos he 
planted a Cross, and the Carmehte Fathers named that 
beautiful Valley, four miles from Monterey, Carmelo, in 
honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary, venerated under the 
title of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Of these facts we 
will have occasion to speak of more fully later on in this 
work. 

Years after these expeditions the good Jesuit Fathers 
estabUshed several missions in Lower Cahfornia, but were 
recalled to Spain by King Carlos III and by this sove- 
reign's request the Franciscan Fathers of the College of 
San Fernando were commissioned to take the newly 
vacated missions and accompany as missionaries the 
great and glorious enterprise of Don Caspar de Portold, 
with Vizcaino's map as guide, to further explore California 
and add it to the Crown of Castile and Leon. 

The Father Guardian of the College of San Fer- 
nando, on receiving the letter from King Carlos, imme- 
diately appointed Junipero Serra, whose zeal and sanctity 
were so well known, as the Father President of the band 
of missionaries to set out for California. Among the mis- 
sionaries who volimteered to evangelize California were 
Fathers Francisco Paloii, Francisco de Lasuen and Juan 
Crespl. 

Here we will introduce a few characters, not of the 
missionary band, but who may well be termed faithful 
co-operators of their labors, men of unimpeachable honor, 
whose names add luster to the pages of Spanish annals. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 9 

Don Jose Galvez, the Visitador General (general visitator) 
of the Spanish possessions in Mexico, a man as pious and 
noble as he was brilHant, managed the expedition of gal- 
lant Don Caspar de Portold and the missionaries, and 
gave Junipero Serra and the brave ofi&cers and soldiers 
much encouragement. This wonderfully managed and 
well equipped expedition, on which hinged the future of 
Cahfornia, was wisely divided into two parts, one to go by 
sea, the other overland. The sea expedition consisted of 
three ships the San Carlos, the San Jose, and the San 
Antonio, the last named was a relief ship and was started 
after the other two. The San Carlos and San Jose carried 
a large portion of the troops, all of which received the 
Sacraments before embarking. On these ships were also 
placed the Church ornaments, provisions, camping outfits 
and cargoes of agricultural implements. Father Junipero 
Serra then blessed the ships and placed them under the 
guidance of Saint Joseph, whom the missionaries had 
chosen as the Patron Saint of Cahfornia. Each ship had 
two missionaries on board and among the crew were 
bakers, cooks and blacksmiths; on the San Antonio went 
the surgeon, Don Pedro Prat. Simultaneously with these 
ships started two land parties, one in advance of the other 
in order to stop at La Paz in Lower California, to pick up 
cattle and sheep wherewith to stock the new country, also 
to bring some of the converted Indians of the mission in 
that region, to aid the missionaries and soldiers by trans- 
lating the speech of the Indians of Alta or Higher Cali- 
fornia; for while the Indian dialetcs were numerous, there 
was some similarity among them. This first land expe- 
dition was in command of Captain Rivera y Moncada. 
The second land party was in command of the newly 
appointed governor, Don Caspar de Portola, the 
first governor of California, and wise indeed was the 



lo CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

choice of this good and excellent man ! This second land 
party was doubly blessed with the presence of Junipero 
Serra. Many were the dangers and hardships encountered 
by these sterling men both by land and sea; and as the 
repetition of what is noble never tires, we will again allude 
to the painful sore on Junipero Serra's leg, which caused 
him such intense suffering, that his continuation of the 
journey many times seemed miraculous even before he 
reached Saint Xavier (the mission established at La Paz). 
When his fellow missionary. Father Palou advised him to 
remain a little longer at Saint Xavier's until he would be 
in a better condition to travel, his only answer was "let us 
speak no more on the subject, I have placed my faith in 
God and trust to His Goodness to plant the holy standard 
of the Cross not only at San Diego but even as far as 
Monterey." And God overshadowed the enterprise 
undertaken in His Name. The ship San Jose was never 
heard from, but its noble crew were always considered 
martyrs who brought blessings on the rest of the expe- 
dition. The San Carlos and the two land parties reached 
San Diego, their first goal almost simultaneously. Here 
was chanted the first Te Deum in California! Here Serra, 
head of the religious portion of the expedition, and 
Portola head of the civil and military, conferred with each 
other on the course they were to follow. And here we 
will leave these incomparable pioneers to celebrate the 
birthday of California, July i, 1769. 




CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 



CHAPTER II 

BRIEF SKETCH OF THE CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA AND OF 
THE FOUNDING OF THE MISSIONS. HOSPITALITY OF 
THE MISSIONS. CARE AND BENEVOLENCE OF THE 
MISSIONARLES TOWARDS THE INDIANS. 

ATHER Junipero Serra and Don Caspar de 
Portola decided on the following plan ; that 
Junipero Serra with Fathers Francisco Palou 
and Francisco de Lasuen would remain in 
San Diego, where Serra was to estabhsh his 
first mission while Portola with Fathers 
Crespl and Comez, Captain Rivera yMoncada, Lieutenant 
Fages and some of the Spanish dragoons and muleteers 
started overland to explore the country, and in quest of 
the Harbor of Monterey, carrying with them the map of 
Sebastian Vizcaino. This expedition was to result in the 
memorable ''March of Portola," which lasted about 
eight months. Missing the Harbor of Monterey on ac- 
count of an error in the reckoning of Vizcaino's map, 
the explorers marched as far north as what is now San 
Francisco and discovered the Harbor that bears that 
name; so named later by Junipero Serra in honor of St. 
Francis of Assisi, the founder of the Franciscan Order. 
After continuing a fruitless search for Monterey, the 
expedition returned to San Diego. Junipero Serra was 
overjoyed at the unexpected discovery of the Harbor of 
San Francisco, which Portola and his companions so 
enthusiastically extolled, and was not discouraged over 
their failure to find the Port of Monterey, but hoped to 
make another trial to find that Port on which their most 



12 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

laudable ambitions were centered. But here a sad diffi- 
culty presented itself. Governor Portola returned to 
San Diego with sad gaps made into his ranks by sickness 
and hardship, but hopeful with the expectation that the 
relief ship promised by Don Jos6 Galvez had arrived, 
and that the San Diego Mission well established would 
be able to give his forces a well deserved chance to re- 
cuperate. But what was his dismay? The relief ship 
had not arrived, and Junipero Serra had indeed founded 
a mission with the usual elaborate ceremonies of the 
Church, but the untiring zeal and labors of himself and 
his companions had not been blessed with a single con- 
vert. No neophyte could be counted among the numerous 
natives of the place, who had even proved hostile at times; 
and the mission too, was in the sorest need; Junipero 
Serra and his companions ofttimes adding to their usual 
fasts and abstemiousness, "that others might have more." 
Still the rehef ship was delayed ! Surely this was not the 
fault of good Don Jose Galvez, but it might have met a 
tragic fate; thus thought the discouraged land and sea 
forces; and Governor Portola was too good a soldier not 
to know that the best course to follow was to start at once 
back to Mexico and abandon the glorious dream, before 
starvation and death overtook everyone of them. But 
here Junipero Serra interposed, and as if inspired pleaded 
with the Governor for "one more day;" Portola out 
of respect did grant just "one more day" before ordering 
the whole expedition back. 

Junipero Serra then repaired to the summit of the 
Presidio Hill and with arms extended, prayed as if in 
ecstasy from sunrise until sunset, "storming the heavens" 
that the rehef ship might come, and the conversion of the 
heathen of California be realized. O unquestionable 
miracle! "More things are wrought by prayer, than this 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 13 

world ever dreamed of!" As the last rays of sun kissed 
his venerable brow, from out the gold and purple horizon, 
he sighted the top-most point of a mast, which while he 
was still "pouring his soul" no longer in suppHcation but 
in thanksgiving, grew into the unmistakable figure of the 
long expected ship. But for that "one more day" what 
would CaHfornia be now? No converted Indians, no 
monumental missions, no exploration and colonization 
no civilization! The ship had been delayed on account 
of the rough voyage it encountered. But now relief, con- 
tentment, renewed hope, renewed courage; and the 
Mission of San Diego was but the first of the twenty-one 
which were to strew El Camino Real (the Royal Road, 
literally, commonly called the King's Highway) of Cali- 
fornia. And chivalrous Portola, filled with even greater 
reverence for the humble priest Junipero Serra, whom his 
lofty soul had always appreciated, once more gathered 
his forces, and started anew in search of Monterey. 
Junipero Serra left the Mission of San Diego in charge of 
two of the good fathers and a small garrison as guards, 
and set out with Portola on his second expedition; and it 
was Serra whose very presence seemed to draw the bless- 
ings of heaven, who pointed out to the Governor the error 
on Vizcaino's map which caused him to miss the Port of 
Monterey. 

This expedition was also divided into two parts, one 
to go overland the other by sea. Father Serra went with 
the sea party which sailed on the Paqueboat San Antonio. 
A number of Spanish dragoons from the fair province of 
Catalonia, muleteers, and some oi the convert Indians 
recruited from the mission of La Paz were in the over- 
land party. 

On May 24th, 1770, the expedition reached Point 
Pinos on the Coast of Monterey; after going south about 



14 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

six miles and encamping on a picturesque spot on the 
shores of the Bay, the missionaries raised an altar and 
Junipero Serra celebrated the first Mass on the shores of 
Monterey on June 3rd, 1770. It is more than likely that 
the Carmehte fathers who came here with Vizcaino had 
done so one hundred and sixty eight years before, but as 
there is no official record of the fact, the Mass celebrated 
on the improvised altar under the oak (which is pre- 
served in the premises of San Carlos Church, Monterey), 
is recorded as the first. Mass over, Junipero Serra and 
Caspar de Portola exhorted the Spanish soldiers to hold 
to the traditional faith and purity of the Spanish race, 
and to kindness to the natives, calling them "weaker 
brethren who should be christianized, not debauched." 
Then Junipero Serra planted a Mission Cross and blessed 
the Spanish flag which Portola hoisted, taking possession 
of the land in the name of *"His Most Catholic Majesty 
King Carlos III, by right of discovery." Junipero Serra 
also blessed the sea and land. 

As Monterey was from the first established as the 
civil, military and religious headquarters of the Spanish 
kingdom in California, her Presidio was known as el 
Presidio Real (the Royal Presidio), and the present 
parish church of Monterey, which was built as a chapel 
for the Presidio was la Capilla Real de San Carlos (the 
Royal Chapel of Saint Charles). 

Junipero Serra found the Indians of Monterey and the 
surrounding country very docile, while the Indians from 
Lower California soon learned their dialect and acted as 
interpreters of the missionaries. The Cross which Viz- 
caino had planted in 1602 was foimd decked with skins 
and shells. On inquiry the Missionaries were told by the 

♦—Official tide of the Kings of Spain. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 15 

Indians that they had often seen mysterious rays of Hght 
around it, and thinking that some god was angry they 
were trying to propitiate him by means of those offerings. 
As we have already noted Junipero Serra said his 
first Mass in Monterey on June 3rd, 1770, and two 
years later he recorded his first baptism. From 
that date the Indians would come in dozens to 
present themselves for instruction. Then the marvels 
that had attended Junipero Serra at Sierra Gorda in 
Mexico, were repeated in Monterey. The naked savages 
were clothed, many of them were beginning to learn 
Spanish and to sing the Latin responses of the Mass and 
hymns both in Spanish and Latin, playing such musical 
instruments as the cymbal and triangle, keeping perfect 
time to every beat. The flocks and cattle were increasing 
and the harvest fields were golden with grain. While 
some of the Indians were taught to till the soil others 
were herdsmen, and some were taught to work as artisans. 
Nearly fifty trades were taught the California Indians 
under the supervision of the Missionaries. In 1771 Juni- 
pero Serra founded the San Carlos Mission in the 
most entrancing location of the Carmelo Valley that 
the nature loving Serra could have chosen; the forests of 
oak, pine and cypress for which Monterey is noted to 
this day, stretch with even greater beauty as we pierce 
farther into the interior, while the fertility of the land 
drained by the beautiful Carmelo River together with the 
commanding position of the spot, made the site of the 
Mission ideal. And this Mission of the Carmelo Valley 
of Monterey, was Junipero Serra's headquarters, here he 
lies buried, and here was the center of that unequalled 
hospitality and pure society for which every mission was 
noted. The Spanish Government made large grants of 
land to the missions, and under the labor, care and ex- 



i6 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

cellent methods of the missionaries, they became powerful 
and wealthy institutions, the pride and blessing of New 
Spain. Fine stock, teeming grain fields and luscious 
orchards graced every mission, and Mission San Carlos 
was no exception, indeed it was one of the most prosperous 
and beautiful. 

Fathers from the Mission at Carmelo, attended the 
Royal Chapel of San Carlos in Monterey and continued 
to do so until long after the last Act of Secularization in 
1835 had been passed by the Mexican Government, and 
San Carlos of Carmelo was left desolate with no priest 
to guard her own altar light. But of this we shall, alas, 
have but too much reason to speak later. Junipero Serra 
did not stop his arduous work by founding beautiful San 
Carlos of Carmelo and consecrating the Royal Chapel of 
Monterey; he was to christianize all California, for all 
CaHfornia had now been added to the Crown of Castile 
and Leon. Spain followed in California the same policy 
which has distinguished her in her other possessions such 
as Cuba, the Philippines and other colonies, steeped in 
idolatry until the Spanish Missionary, whose zeal is 
proverbial, wrested their countless inhabitants from the 
cymmerian gloom of paganism. Thus as soon as San 
Carlos Mission was foimded, the glorious march of El 
Camino Real continued. 

Mission San Antonio de Padua, the third mission, 
was estabhshed in July i, 1771. The beauty of the spot 
and wonderful eagerness of the Indians to receive baptism 
greatly touched Junipero Serra and the other two Fran- 
ciscan Fathers who accompanied him as well as some of the 
soldiers who were in the party. To-day Mission San 
Antonio is almost in ruins, but its very ruins are piles 
which speak of mystic beauty, and in the days of mission 
glory San Antonio was one of the fairest of the missions. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 17 

On returning to Carmelo, Junipero Serra filled the other 
missionaries with joy over this latest conquest of souls, 
and sent messengers to Fathers Somera and Cambon 
whom he had left in charge of the Mission at San Diego, 
to estabhsh a mission in southern California, which they 
would name San Gabriel. The two Fathers, with ten 
soldiers as guards, started a march northward until they 
came to the present sight of San Gabriel, which they saw 
immediately was a good location for a mission, partic- 
ularly as a beautiful stream flowed through the Valley, 
and wherever possible the Fathers chose a spot where 
there was water for the mission orchards and gardens. 

Here we may add that the Fathers had a system of 
irrigation by means of ditches, traces of which may be 
seen to this day in the sites where stood many of the old 
mission orchards. The fruits from these good Fathers 
gardens were the fairest and most luscious that California 
has ever seen, none of our lovely grapes compare with 
theirs, and their olives were larger and better than any 
of which Cahfornia boasts to-day. 

Although not deviating from our subject we have 
wandered from the thread of our story in the foundation 
of Mission San Gabriel. One incident contained in the 
records of this Mission may hardly be passed over in 
silence. The good Franciscans and their brave little 
bodyguard found the Indians in a very hostile mood, still 
they blessed a Mission Cross and planted it; but the 
Indians increasing their threatening attitude, the Fathers 
unfurled a large white banner bearing the image of the 
Blessed Virgin Mary, placing the side of the banner with 
the image in full view of the heathens. Priests and 
soldiers then knelt and implored the intercession of the 
Redeemer's Immaculate Mother for their safety and for 
the conversion of the Indians to the Faith of her Divine 



i8 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

Son. Immediately came the answer from Heaven! The 
Indians not only abandoned every sign of hostility, but 
came forward towards the Fathers with every sign of 
sincere submissiveness, and after due instruction were 
baptized. For it must be remembered that the Church 
does not, and cannot force her belief on anyone who does 
not willingly accept it; the poor savage is no exception; 
instruction, kindness, prayers may always be employed, 
no more. As in many cases the nature of the Indian was 
too elementary to be moved at first by the lessons and 
exhortations of suffering and self-denial of Our Saviour, 
and the bridlmg of the human passions; in many in- 
stances the Fathers would first win the Indians' confidence 
by giving them blankets, beads and such things as at- 
tracted them, then by degrees unfolded the tenets of 
religion and mysteries of faith, to which in most cases 
these erstwhile savages clung with firmness and gave 
many edifying signs of true and sincere Christianity. A 
band of white beads around the head distinguished the 
christian Indians from the pagan. 

The flocks, vineyards and orchards of Mission San 
Gabriel, as well as the skill of its Indians, in time became 
famous throughout California, and it was from here that 
Governor Felipe de Neve, third Governor of CaHfomia, 
started in 178 1 with several of the Fathers and a company 
of soldiers to found the present city of Los Angeles. 

The fifth Mission, San Luis Obispo, was founded on 
September i, 1772, by Junipero Serra in person; the 
saintly Father makmg a pilgrimage there for that purpose. 
Thus in the space of three years, five missions were 
founded. A royal record of the zeal of the missionaries 
and of the humanity of the Spanish Government and 
Authorities. 

In 1774 the Spanish Viceroy of Mexico informed 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 19 

Junipero Serra that he intended to estabhsh a presidio 
in San Francisco **for the further extension of Spanish and 
Christian power." Junipero Serra, on receipt of this 
letter, selected Fathers Paloii and Cambon to accom- 
pany the soldiers, and Lieutenant Juan de Ayala was 
ordered with his ship stationed at Monterey to further 
explore the San Francisco Bay; Juan de Anza, another 
brilliant officer, was entrusted with the establishment 
of the new presidio; the site he chose being the identical 
one on which the Presidio of San Francisco stands today. 
Lieutenant Juan de Ayala of the Royal Navy of Spain, 
was the first to steer a ship through the Golden Gate, 
and a strange coincidence was that his ship was the San 
Carlos which had come to San Diego with a portion of 
the first Spanish pioneers in 1769. With Lieutenant 
Ayala was Father Vincente de Santa Maria who, with 
Fathers Palou and Cambon, planted a Mission Cross and 
founded Mission Nuestra Sefiora de los Dolores, which 
has withstood so many ravages of time and change, of 
man and elements. 

The seventh Mission was San Juan Capistrano, founded 
on November i, 1776, by Father Lasuen. This Mission 
was also a very flourishing Mission, the Indians were 
docile and aided the Spanish laborers in its construction, 
which lasted nearly fourteen years. 

Mission Santa Clara was the eighth to be established. 
It was founded on January 12, 1777. The original lines 
of this once beautiful Mission are almost entirely changed 
but like all its sister missions it still retains much of its 
dear old atmosphere, and can boast of the tomb of 
Father Magin Catala who died there in 1836 *'in the 
odor of sanctity." Mission Santa Clara was founded 
by Father Tomas de la Pena y Saradia; and its his- 
tory is fascinating and romantic. The Mission Cross 



20 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

which Father de la Pena y Saradia planted here, is still 
standing. 

The ninth Mission was San Buenaventura, founded 
also by Junipero Serra in person, in company with Gov- 
ernor Felipe de Neve, on Easter Sunday of March 31, 

1783- 

From San Buenaventura, Junipero Serra and Gov- 
ernor de Neve marched to what is now Santa Barbara, 
Here the Indians were numerous and more intelligent 
than any in California, where the Indians were far denser 
than either the Incas of South America or the Aztecs of 
Mexico. Delays, caused by military differences, retarded 
the foundation of Santa Barbara Mission, which would 
have been the tenth, but Junipero Serra planted a Mission 
Cross and selected the site on which it was destined to be 
founded four years after his death. From here Serra 
returned to Carmelo; his journeys from one Mission to 
another being always on foot. 

And here we must pause: We have come in our 
narrative to that momentous year in the history, not 
only of the missions, but of California. The year when 
Junipero Serra, true priest of God, christianizer, civilizer, 
wonderful among wonderful pioneers, or as Governor 
Caspar de Portola had spoken of him years before, "the 
humblest, bravest man of God I ever knew," had done 
his work! Junipero Serra was ready for his throne in 
Heaven, his crown awaited him, his rough Franciscan 
habit was to be glorified. We have briefly glanced at 
his chief characteristics from his boyhood in historic 
Spain, and must have guaged the measure of his untiring 
and tried virtue from the time he landed in Mexico and 
San Diego, on through the years he labored as the Apostle 
of California; to these let us add just a few of the private 
practices of mortification which he imposed on his inno- 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 21 

cent flesh, notwithstanding his age, his physical infirm- 
ities, extraordinary labors and hardships in a new, half 
explored country. Virtually they sound like a passage 
from the lives of the Saints. His journeys were always on 
foot, although the old sore on his leg remained like an 
instrument of torture throughout his life, nothing being 
able to help him. El Camino Real, from San Francisco 
to Monterey and from Monterey to San Diego, with its 
rough roads, was as familiar to him who walked it with 
so much difficulty as it is to us who enjoy it by comfort- 
able travel on the railroad or pleasurable motor trips; 
his fasts were austere and frequent, wine he never used, 
the discipline was no stranger to him, a bed w^as not among 
his possessions, on the bare floor or bench at most he would 
rest his sore missionary body ; yet he never imposed unneces- 
sary penance on anyone, he was hard only on himself, 
he was gentle and affectionate to a marked degree, his faith, 
trust in Providence, humihty and charity, were heroic. 
Of his seventy-four years of life, fifty-four he had been a 
Franciscan Priest and thirty-five he had devoted to 
missionary work, of which nine were spent in Mexico and 
fourteen in Cahfornia. His wonderful eloquence and 
magnetic power for preaching which had won him honors 
in the Old World even as a newly ordained priest, he had 
used and adapted for the instruction of thousands of 
heathens of the New World; and now that Christianity 
and civilization were beginning to bud with springtime 
loveliness like the Castilian roses he had planted in some 
of the mission gardens, while the sun of Spanish glory was 
still in the ascendency and no threatening omens of the 
fall of Spanish or Franciscan power, or nightmares of the 
Acts of Secularization disturbed the cloudless skies, while 
the Presidio Real of Monterey bore the arms of the Span- 
ish King and the CapiUa Real de San Carlos was thronged 



22 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

with gallant officers and brave men of the Royal Army 
and Navy of Castile and Leon, and Our Lady seemed to 
smile blessings on her Valley of Carmelo, before the 
beauteous dream, nay, realization of noble ambitions, 
had vanished Uke a fair sun, God called His faithful 
Servant unto Himself, in his cell at his beloved San Carlos 
Mission about 2:30 P. M. on August 28, 1784, according 
to the entry of Father Francisco Palou, in the archives 
of San Carlos Mission, preserved in San Carlos Church 
of Monterey. And what a day this was! The archives 
here are full of touching detail. Solemn salutes were 
fired from the ships stationed in the Harbor of Monterey, 
and the grief of the people was inexpressible. The 
Indians were inconsolable. The officers of the Royal 
Navy claimed his sandals as a precious keepsake, and the 
Fathers could not restrain the people from cutting pieces 
of his habit to carry away as souvenirs; the Indians 
claimed his Franciscan cord and many cut locks of his 
silver hair; his corpse had to be dressed twice on account 
of this pious proceeding. In a plain redwood coffin his 
precious remains were laid in a vault "on the gospel side 
of the altar within the sanctuary of San Carlos Mission." 
O! holy grave, how many changes thou hast seen! O 
happy Serra, from the dazzling splendors of God's light 
how often thou must have prayed for thy work, thy 
people, thy neophytes! In God's inscrutable Providence 
the good are of ttimes permitted to suffer, but the same All 
Wise Hand can brush away with a single stroke, the wrong 
done to His own, and His time seems near! 

We will now resume the story of the foundation of 
the missions, for we really stopped at the ninth. Junipero 
Serra's hfe-long friend. Father Palou was chosen tem- 
porary President of the Missions, for within a year he 
retired to the Franciscan College of San Fernando, where 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 23 

he gave most of his time to writing, and to him we are 
indebted for a complete and accurate biography of Juni- 
pero Serra. After Father Palou's resignation, Father 
Francisco de Lasuen was appointed Father President of 
the Missions. Father Lasuen was an arduous laborer 
and able priest of the original heroic band of missionaries, 
and his first act was to establish Mission Santa Barbara, 
where Junipero Serra had planted a Mission Cross nearly 
four years previous. This was accomplished on Decem- 
ber 4, 1787, and of the twenty-one missions which were 
spoliated in later years, Santa Barbara was the only one 
which tyrannical laws could never dispossess of its lawful 
owners, hence to this day the Sons of Saint Francis are 
there to guard the "altar hght." 

From Santa Barbara, Father Lasuen travelled north 
to Lompoc, and founded Mission La Purisima Con- 
cepcion on December 8, 1787. 

Mission de Nuestra Senora de la Soledad was founded 
in October of 1791. The last Act of Secularization in 
1835 fell very heavily on this lovely Mission of which 
scarcely a trace remains today. This mission was noted 
for its fine stock and luxuriant pastures. 

On Christmas day of 1791 was founded the Mission 
of Santa Cruz. This Mission never rivalled the other 
missions in wealth, but in later years it was honored 
with a martyr. Here is the authentic story of Father 
Quintana, whose martyr's death occurred here as late as 
181 7. Father Quintana was a holy and zealous priest of 
this mission, who had carried on the work of the con- 
version of the Indians most of whom were already chris- 
tian, but a small portion still remained heathen, and these 
were very hostile. As was later discovered, while the good 
priest was reading his breviary in his office, some of these 
hostile Indians entered, and most cruelly murdered him, 



24 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

then taking his body into the mission orchard placed it 
against a capuKn tree (a tree much resembhng the cherry- 
tree in fruit and form). On thus discovering the corpse 
the other Fathers immediately sent a message to the 
surgeon of the Royal Presidio of Monterey, who at the 
time was Don Manuel Quixano (step-father of the writer's 
great grandmother). After holding an autopsy on the 
martyred body, Dr. Quixano found that the saintly 
Father had been horribly and cruelly murdered. The 
details are preserved in the Santa Cruz Mission archives, 
but are not given to the public. The capulin tree which 
the Indians made use of to make it appear that the 
Father's death was a natural one, was at the time in full 
bloom, and in a few hours became a dry lifeless trunk. 
A remarkable act of Providence indeed! 

The fourteenth and fifteenth missions established 
were Mission San Jose and beautiful Mission San Juan 
Bautista, founded respectively on June nth and June 
24th of the year 1797. 

We have generously used words denoting beauty and 
prosperity in describing the missions, but no less can be 
said of these mighty and bountiful institutions, who, 
even in their regal ruins are California's chief attraction 
to this day. 

The sixteenth mission was San Miguel, founded by 
Fathers Francisco de Lasuen and Buenaventura Sitjar, 
with very impressive and elaborate ceremonials, on July 
25th, 1797. The briUiant frescoing of this mission was 
done in 1824 by the writer's great grandfather, Esteban 
Munras, a Spaniard from Barcelona, who had studied art 
in his native city, and who was intimately connected with 
the early missionaries, especially those of Monterey, where 
he resided. Esteban Munras did the frescoing of San 
Miguel^Mission at the request of Father Juan Cabot, also a 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 25 

native of Barcelona. Thus we see the undaunted steadfast- 
ness of these early missionaries who, although California 
had already passed from Spanish to Mexican rule, and 
mission power was beginning to wane, still were zealous 
for the greater adornment of God's holy temples. 

On September 8, 1797, Mission San Fernando, Rey 
de Espana was founded. In June of the following year 
San Luis, Rey de Francia, fifty-four Indian children being 
baptized on the day of its foundation. It was in the patio 
(court yard) of this mission that the first pepper tree in 
California was planted by Father Antonio Peyri. 

On September 17, 1804, beautiful Santa Ynez Mission 
was founded. Here Father Arroyo, a brilliant scholar, 
prepared a working grammar of the language of the 
Indians of the San Juan region. In December, 181 7, San 
Rafael was founded, and made a splendid record of con- 
versions. Not a trace of this mission remains today. 

The last mission- was San Francisco Solano within 
the city limits of the present town of Sonoma, and was 
founded as late as 1823, thus again is shown the wonder- 
ful courage and zeal of the missionaries in the face of 
obstacles, for at this date as we have already noted Span- 
ish Mission power had begun to wane, and while Mexico 
was unable to wipe out entirely Spanish rule and influence 
for many years, still she had already claimed California 
as her own. Many wealthy Russian traders lived in the 
country about Sonoma, who showed themselves extremely 
friendly to the missionaries, assisted at the ceremonies 
of the founding of the mission and made generous con- 
tributions for its adornment. 

And now our march of El Camino Real is ended; but 
let us take another look at mission life. The plan of the 
missions was most wonderful, situated in the most beau- 
tiful spots, the journey of one day from one another, and 



26 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

the seats of learning and well earned prosperity in Cali- 
fornia; their architecture was the best imitation of the 
Spanish Gothic style which the Spanish laborers could 
build with the tools and materials which were then pos- 
sible to have in the New World. The only share the In- 
dians had in the building of the missions was in assisting 
to carry beams, stone, making the beautiful red tiles 
found in every mission roof, and the like, but the actual 
construction was done by Spanish workmen under the 
supervision of the Fathers. 

Besides the church proper, the missions consisted of 
groups of buildings set aside for converted Indians and 
their families, a storehouse, a guardhouse, a monastery 
and spacious quarters for guests. For at a mission not 
only friends of the Fathers and persons of standing, but 
every wayfarer whoever he might be "found warmth and 
plenty" as long as he chose to remain under their blessed 
shelter. And so great was mission hospitaHty that a pile 
of silver was laid in the bedroom of a guest to be taken by 
him or left as he saw fit; of course no well bred guest who 
was not in need would impose on the holy Fathers' gen- 
erosity, but it was their delicate way of assisting an un- 
fortunate pilgrim who might be in need. The missions 
too, were the centers of important gatherings and peace- 
ful rendezvous of persons of social standing, even after 
the first two Acts of Secularization had been passed in 
after years. But these noble entertainments, wealth of 
luscious fruits, golden sheaves, luxuriant pastures and 
fleecy lambs, were as the least gifts of these matchless 
institutions, for we can never exaggerate the marvels 
wrought for the betterment of the heathen natives, or 
the fairer fruits of the countless heroic virtues practiced 
within these enclosures. The Indians clung to the Fathers 
like Httle children to their parents, and from the vices of 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 27 

paganism, under a healthy and kind rule drawn for them 
by the wise Fathers, christian virtues took a deep root in 
at least a great many of these poor "children of the soil" 
and so great was the care exercised by the Fathers that 
nightly they would make a round of the rooms allotted 
to every christian and neophyte Indian family to see that 
order and decency reigned in each group; for we must 
remember these souls were but recently rescued from the 
dark sins of heathenism. 

Blessed temples! noble hospices! heroic priests! 
We are loathe to change the scene, but winter's storms 
must come ere the laurel wreath crowns the glorified brow ! 
Still, we need not leave the "enchanted palace" yet, 
vernal loveliness still charms the eyes and summer is 
just begun. 

If it be but for one brief moment let us ruminate the 
glories, the wealth, the beauty of mission joys, before 
the least cruel echoes of Secularization are heard. The 
sun of Franciscan and Spanish glory is still mounting the 
firmament higher and higher. The sky still wears Our 
Lady's blue * * * and no pentitential purple has ap- 
peared with the departing rays of sunset, only the royal 
purple and gold which years before had made the scene a 
fairylike setting for the heavenset relief ship to San Diego 
and assured the noble enterprise of the exploration and 
christianizing of Cahfornia. 

*Blue and white are the symbolical colors of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 




28 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

CHAPTER III 

MORE ABOUT SAN CARLOS MISSION AND MONTEREY 

|S WE have seen in the preceding chapter, 
Monterey was the capital of the Spanish 
Possessions in CaHfornia, consequently San 
Carlos Mission was the headquarters of 
Junipero Serra. And what was not San 
Carlos Mission of Carmelo in the days of 
her glory ! We are in a maze of thought as to how to 
begin to tell her story. Of the beauty of the spot where 
this mission was built we have already spoken, as well 
as of how the golden valley of Carmelo came to be 
named. And here we may well exclaim with that dear 
English Saint of the thirteenth century, Saint Simon 
Stock, who invoked the Immacuulate Virgin with the 
following beautiful lines: 

"Carmel's fair flower 
Rod blossom laden 

Smile on thy dower 
Meek Mother — Maiden 

None equals thee. 
Give us a sign 

Thou dost protect us 
Mark us for thine 

Guide and direct us 
Star of the Sea." 

A more perfect replica of the country surrounding 
the shrine of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Palestine 
would be hard to find, and the "Meek Mother-Maiden" 
did give many a sign of her protection to her clients in this 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 31 

new Carmel of the West. And it was at San Carlos 
Mission of Carmelo, that the superiors of the different 
missions convened and gave accounts of their work and 
numbers of baptisms etc. to the Father President. And 
how glowing are the records of those accounts! Here on 
festival days after the religious services were held social 
gatherings and entertainments of the purest yet merriest 
order. Marriages, baptisms, all notable events had their 
share of attention. The hospitaUty of the missions, the 
care and kindness shown to the Indians, the numerous 
flocks, harvests and orchards which embeUished them 
under the wonderful management of the good Fathers, 
all existed in copious measure at San Carlos. 

The huge, beautiful bells of this mission the chimes 
of which were heard clearly in Monterey were cracked 
during the years when the mission was neglected but 
some of the pieces were later recast and as far as known 
the present bells of the mission were made from them. 

We cannot consider a sketch of this mission however 
brief, complete, without giving due credit to the Very 
Reverend Angelo Casanova, parish priest of Monterey 
from 1869 until the time of his death in 1893. This zeal- 
ous priest undertook the work of restoring the mission 
for a portion of it was in ruins, and to-day there would be 
but Uttle of San Carlos to see and admire but for Father 
Casanova's timely work of restoration, which he accom- 
plished with some help of friends, but chiefly with his 
own private fortune which he inherited. Many a time 
was Father Casanova seen assisting the laborers with his 
own hands. And what a happy day it was for Monterey 
when the first Mass was sung in the restored mission after 
years of vandalism and neglect! The old statues which 
had escaped the ravages of time were replaced in their 
niches, the sanctuary lamp was relighted for the Sacra- 



32 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

mental Presence once more enthroned on His altar and 
the organ pealed forth the ancient Latin hymns of the 
Church once more. Another very significant event of 
this restoration was that Father Casanova had the four 
bodies contained in the vaults of the mission exhumed 
and placed on new vaults, built however near the original 
spots "on the gospel side of the altar, within the sanc- 
tuary." The four bodies are the remains of Fathers 
Junipero Serra, Juan Crespi, Francisco de Lasuen and 
Julian Lopez. Another good outcome of this event was 
that it exploded the utterly unfounded story that a Span- 
ish ship had carried away the remains of Junipero Serra 
to Spain. The vestments on each body were found in a 
perfect state of preservation at the time this work was 
done in 1882. 

For years the saintly Serra's body was buried under 
a pile of debris, but his "sepulchre has become glorious" 
in spite of all. And since the restoration of this mission, 
the feast of Saint Charles Borromeo, (its Patron Saint) 
has again been celebrated here every November the 
twenty-fourth, and a rehc of Saint Charles which Father 
Junipero Serra brought from Spain, is as of old carried 
in procession. While this is of course a CathoHc festival, 
reverent visitors of various creeds attend it. The mission 
is guarded by a care-taker, living in the premises of what 
remains of the old mission orchard. 

It was also due to Father Casanova, that Mrs. Leland 
Stanford donated, in 1890, the Serra Monument* which 
crowns a slope just above the spot where this wonderful 
missionary said his fiirst Mass in Monterey. 

We cannot give sufficient credit to Reverend Ray- 



*The Very Reverend Angelo Casanova selected the writer of this sketch 
and her brother, then little children to unveil this monument. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 33 

mond Mestres, the present parish priest of Monterey, 
and a Spaniard from the Province of Catalonia, like 
Junipero Serra and many of the early missionaries. 
Father Mestres has given time, energy and noble efforts 
unstintingly to perpetuate the memory of Junipero Serra 
and to more fully restore not only San Carlos Mission 
and San Carlos Church, but is encouraging a movement 
to restore if possible all the California Missions according 
to their traditional and historical plans; may his great enter- 
prise be blessed with all the radiance of crowning success! 

We will have ample reason to speak more of Father 
Mestres' good work elsewhere in this sketch, hence we 
will pass into Monterey itself. Monterey was named 
after the Spanish Viceroy of Mexico, who at the 
time of her discovery, was the Count of Monterey. 
As we have many times noted this city was of royal 
birth. Unlike any of the other Presidios, her Presidio 
was el Presidio Real, the chapel attached to it la Capilla 
Real, and the ships which sailed the blue waters of 
her crescent bay were the ships of the Royal Navy of 
Spain. No mission town was without its glories, its fas- 
cinating history or delightful surroundings, but Mon- 
terey was like a fair empress of them all. Yet no jealousy 
or feelings of rivalry were felt for Monterey by her sister 
towns, nor was her right to the sceptre ever contested. 
From the time that Sebastian Vizcaino placed her on his 
map in 1602 and glowingly described her beautiful harbor, 
noble forests and majestic hills, Spain focused her atten- 
tion on Monterey, and when her Port was at last found by 
Portola, and the stout old ship San Antonio under the 
command of Captain Juan Perez entered her harbor on 
May 31st, 1770, without any discussion or preamble she 
was made the capital of New Spain. 

The news of her discovery and of Junipero Serra cele- 



34 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

brating Mass on her shores were sent with all possible 
haste to the Viceroy of the Spanish possessions in Mexico 
and to good Don Jose Galvez, also a complete statement 
of her discovery was drawn up and sent to the Court of 
Spain. And how were these news received? Solemn 
masses of thanksgiving were celebrated in some of the 
Spanish cathedrals, attended by many of the highest 
religious, civil and mihtary authorities, while congratu- 
lations from every side poured into King Carlos and his 
Viceroy. And all this exultation over the discovery of 
the lovely spot we all know and love so well ! Monterey, 
like a "pearl of great price" had been hard to find, but 
like a "pearl of great price" was worth the quest. Beau- 
tiful Monterey with her shores decked with Vizcaino's 
Cross since 1602, Monterey with her bay blue like a tur- 
quoise, matching the azure of heaven, Monterey with her 
forests and flowers, with her Valley of Carmelo and glori- 
ous sunsets, adding to natures charms, her historical and 
sacred atmosphere, her landmarks and the improvements 
of man. No wonder thousands yearly throng this gifted 
spot of God's earth! 

As may be needless to say, Monterey, became the 
center of the social life, beauty and culture of the mission 
towns. From Monterey, inspiration flowed as from a 
fountain head. And even to this day she is irresistible. 
Even to this day, in spite of the many sad scenes and 
oblivious years which have stamped their trace upon her 
loveliness and impaired her regal splendor, her charm is 
told by her landmarks and crowned by her natural fort- 
ress of hills, her forests and flower robed meadows, and 
lulled at evening by the murmur of the iridescent waters 
of her bay reflecting the sunset splendors of the sky. 

About 1 8 10 Monterey was ravaged by buccaneers under 
Bliitcher, who was such a terror to many sea-port towns, 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 35 

these pirates sailed up the Pacific Coast, and appeared 
in Monterey Bay in four large vessels arriving at mid- 
night. Before they could be driven out of the town they 
set fire to some of the Spanish Presidio homes and carried 
away precious jewels and silver belonging to the Spanish 
ladies, and provisions from the garrison. 

The former Capilla Real de San Carlos is now the 
parish church of Monterey, guarding like a fond mother 
all that remains of the massive silver altar vessels and 
candelabras, paintings, statues, vestments, manuscripts 
and archives of the pioneer missionaries of this mission. 

Among the modern attractions of Monterey we must 
not fail to mention Hotel Del Monte built and owned by 
the Pacific Improvement Company, and the many beau- 
tiful drives constructed by the same company. Mr. 
Frank Powers was the founder of the flourishing settle- 
ment of Carmel-by-the-Sea, a few minutes walk from San 
Carlos Mission and a favorite resort of artists and htera- 
teurs. These with many others have been no small con- 
tributors to the old Capital. Thus while we deplore years 
of vandalism, and the thousands who have joined the 
"careless throng" we can always turn to the pleasing 
contrast of sympathizers and friends who are always 
wilhng to give "honor to whom honor is due," and in 
doing so have spared neither purse nor efforts in aiding 
those who under difficulties have guarded the flame of 
tradition and love of the splendid past with its bright 
galaxy of "heroes, martyrs, saints." True, the glowing 
embers often smouldered beneath a debris of neglect and 
even harsh misrepresentation but were not and could not 
be extinguished. And now faithful hearts may beat fast 
with holy joy for the feeble light fanned by loving zephyrs 
has burst into a glowing flame destined to diffuse its love 
and influence to all, regardless of creed, race or station. 




36 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

CHAPTER IV 

CALIFORNIA UNDER SPANISH RULE 

)ITH the landing of Serra and Portola at San 
Diego in 1769, began the Spanish period of 
Cahfomia. The chief events of this period 
Jare in a pith, the following: The estabhsh- 
ment of the missions, the christianizing of 
the Indians and the exploration and coloni- 
zation of California. It is from the Spanish period that the 
history and standing of California date. The ten Spanish 
Governors of California as well as the officers of the Army 
and Navy were men of honor and ability, and the record left 
by the Spanish settlers is one of which any country might 
be proud. During the Spanish period the geographical lines 
of California were settled and her harbors surveyed.* It 
was during this period that most of the present cities of 
California were founded, Spain following the plan of 
building the towns around the missions. The first Gov- 
ernor, Don Caspar de Portola, was a great and good man 
as well as a brilliant officer, gentle and reasonable in every 
respect, he was beloved by all; to him California owes the 
discovery of San Francisco Bay, and the great co-opera- 
tion he gave to Junipero Serra, as well as his reverent 
esteem for this saintly man has endeared his memory to 
every true CaHfomian, and immortahzed his name in 
Spain. After a period of two years in office Portola went 
to Mexico, then under Spanish rule, and from there 
returned to Spain. 

*Alberto de Cordoba, an excellent engineer, surveyed the Harbor of San 
Francisco in 1813, at the request of Governor Borica. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 37 

Portola was succeeded by Gov. Felipe de Barri, who 
after three years was removed from office on account of 
infringing on the rights of the missionaries and siding 
with Captain Rivera Y. Moncada who was a somewhat 
arrogant man, who also on several occasions infringed on 
the rights of the missionaries; but the faults of the latter 
have been very exaggerated by some historians, namely, 
some declare that he was ex-communicated from the 
church on account of insolence to the missionaries, 
whereas there is no record of such a fact. Excepting their 
officiousness and arrogance, Barri and Rivera were moral 
and able men. 

Barri was succeeded by Felipe de Neve, a statesman, 
scholar and worthy governor who at once declared him- 
self the friend and protector of the missionaries. It was 
Governor de Neve who drew up CaUfornia's first code of 
legislation dated from the ''Royal Presidio of San Carlos 
at Monterey" in June 1779. This code known as the 
"Reglamento" is regarded by capable judges as a most 
remarkable and valuable document. It was also Governor 
de Neve who founded the present city of Los Angeles, 
the original name of which was Neustra Seiiora de los 
Angeles, later shortened into Los Angeles. The towns of 
San Jose and Santa Clara also owe their foundation to 
de Neve, who selected the location of these cities around 
the mission sites. After eight years of office de Neve 
was marked for higher honors, and was succeeded by 
Governor Pedro Fages. 

Governor Fages was a good and energetic man, but 
better fitted for the army than for the state ; he was noted 
for his lofty principals of morality. Fages resigned his 
office and returned to Spain; he was not a tactful ruler, 
but like many others his name has suffered at the hands 
of unscrupulous writers. Fages was succeeded in 1790 



38 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

by Governor Jose Antonio Romeu, a bright and able but 
very sickly man. Dr. Pablo Soler the excellent physician 
and surgeon of the Province of California was unable to 
help him; and Romeu died in Monterey in less than two 
years of o£5ce. 

Jose de Arrillaga was the sixth governor. This gov- 
ernor was a finished general, and placed the presidios of 
California on a solid basis; he was painstaking and careful 
of detail. He resigned on account of private business 
affairs but later returned as he was reappointed governor 
of Cahfornia. 

The seventh governor was Diego de Borica. Around 
this Governor cluster many beautiful pages of Spanish 
history in California; his was a character as gentle, re- 
ligious and home-loving as he was scholarly and tactful. 
It was under Borica's administration that the boundary 
lines of Upper and Lower California were clearly defined. 
Borica, however, was not a man who courted public life 
or honors, and resigned his office, returning to Spain with 
his charming wife and daughter who always longed for 
their mother country. 

Before leaving Borica did a good service to Spain and 
California in recommending the reappointment of Jose 
Joaquin Arrillaga. Arrillaga continued to organize strong 
military defenses for California. He served as Spanish 
Governor of California fourteen years, and first of all 
declared himself on all occasions "a loyal son of the 
Church." He died at Mission Soledad on July 25, 18 13, 
and was buried there. The only Spanish Governor to 
be buried in California. 

The ninth Spanish Governor was Jose Dario Arguello, 
who was in office one year, the interval between the death 
of Arrillaga and the advent of Pablo Vicente de Sola the 
last Spanish Governor of California. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 39 

When Governor Sola took office in 1814, California 
had already bloomed into a garden of beautiful men and 
women, many of them from the mother country, others 
their children born in this distant province of Castile. 
Also many Yankee, Russian and English trading ships 
came to CaHfornia then, and the Spanish presidios were 
the scenes of many brilhant dances and entertainments. 
These foreign vessels were always welcome; while the 
Governors were careful that the power of Spain was not 
infringed upon, perfect courtesy and friendliness was 
always maintained by both Spaniards and visitors. Thus 
when Governor Sola arrived to take his office he was 
given a royal welcome. Of course, it was in Monterey 
that every governor took up his residence (at the Royal 
Presidio) and their first act was to attend Solemn High 
Mass at the Royal Chapel of San Carlos of Monterey. 
Sola was no exception to the rule; amid salutes from the 
cannon of the Presidio and the cheers of loyal subjects, 
by the Catalonian cavalry, and their officers in their 
gorgeous velvet uniforms, gold swords and plumed hats, 
Sola proceeded to the Royal Chapel where the Franciscan 
Fathers awaited him in their priestly vestments. Three 
days of carnival followed, but on the second day Governor 
Sola withdrew from the festivities, made the *Stations 
of the Cross which the fathers had erected between 
Monterey and Carmelo, and on reaching San Carlos of 
Carmelo was shown to the tombs of Junipero Serra, Juan 
Crespi and Francisco de Laseun. Here the Governor 
knelt and remained long in prayer. 

In Cahfornia Sola found a pleasing contrast from the 
conditions of affairs he had seen during his sojourn in 
"Brothers we are treading 
Where the saints have trod." 

*A Catholic devotion in honor of Our Saviour's Passion. 



40 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

Mexico. In that country clouds of revolt against Spanish 
rule were rapidly gathering. California he found intensely 
loyal to the Crown. The neophytes and converted In- 
dians greatly touched his generous soul, and the beauty 
of the country delighted him. Sold was in office eight 
years; his work was well done, and if California was lost 
to Spain under his administration, no less credit can be 
given to his abiUty and high principals of honor. Many 
times did Sola quell disturbances from revolutionary 
vessels which landed in Monterey from Mexico, and 
several attacks from pirates, and many a noble 
act is recorded of this loyal governor as well as of 
the no less loyal Spanish subjects of the Province. If the 
Mexican Government supplanted Spanish rule and "laid 
desolate" much of the work done by this brilliant period 
of California, we repeat it was due to no treachery or 
cowardice of Sola and his compatriots as we shall see 
elsewhere in this sketch. Spain came into possession of 
California with honor, maintained it with honor, and 
after her three-fold honorable policy of exploration, colo- 
nization and christianizing of its heathen natives, left it 
with honor, but her monuments remained. If a few po- 
litical troubles and abuses existed, they pale before the 
light of the myriad of great deeds and purposes, and where 
is the country or people who are utterly flawless indi- 
vidually? No cruelties or uncleanness can ever be proven 
against Spain or her people here. Spanish society and 
refinement was the first which California saw; imder 
Spain were thousands of Indians rescued from savagery, 
and under Spain was California made known to the world, 
as well as discovered. Under Spain too were the first land 
grants made to her subjects in California. 

Some historians and casual observers are inclined to 
blame Spain for not having lent more aid to her loyal 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 41 

California colonies and enabled her presidios to have 
more and better fortifications. But let us examine these 
points more coolly. First of all this province was far 
away from the mother country, means of travel and com- 
munication were then far different from what they are 
now, and Spain was also busy with political troubles at 
home; she had always sent her most representative men 
as governors and officers, her settlers were no less worthy, 
most of them coming here with no ''empty purse" as 
adventurers, but were men of education and standing 
in their country. The galaxy of saintly missionaries is 
superfluous to mention, so above are they of the least 
sting of reproach, and lastly so clean are the pages of 
Spanish history in California that no serious student of 
whatever race or creed he or she may be, can but deplore 
the calumnies that have at times been hurled at this 
golden period of California history. It was from the 
Spanish period of California that the present capital of 
the state dates having been named Santisimo Sacramento 
(Most Holy Sacrament) in honor of the Eucharistic 
Presence of the Altar. Thus we see the vein of piety of 
the Spanish settlers who gave names of religious signifi- 
cance to so many of the towns they founded, and even to 
their land grants. In fine these sterling men were worthy 
compatriots of those giant men and women which have 
appeared at different times in Spain. We refer to Saints, 
Ignatius of Loyola, Francis Xavier, Dominic, Theresa 
of Jesus and a myriad others, also to the fair array of 
kings and queens, poets, artists, explorers, whose illus- 
trious names would fill volumes. 

When treading El Camino Real and kneeling by the 
sacred tombs of Junipero Serra and his hero band of soul- 
conquerors we may well recall that passage of the beau- 
tiful Hymn of the Knights of Columbus. 




42 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 



CHAPTER V 

CALIFORNIA PASSES FROM SPANISH TO MEXICAN RULE, 
SECULARIZATION OF THE MISSIONS 

MIDST the beauty and glory of Spain's do- 
minion in California, while the gold emblaz- 
oned banners of Castile and Leon floated 
proudly under azure skies, while the Span- 
ish governors, officers and colonists were 
doing honor and credit to their ancient race, 
and the saintly missionaries were working marvels for the 
souls and bodies of the aborigines of the land, while Spain 
was thus lending "her beauty and her chivalry" to Cali- 
fornia; Mexico, forgetting her old debt to Spain, when she 
explored her then heathen shores, had revolted against 
Spanish rule and set up an empire of her own, making 
Augustin Iturbide, a man of half Indian blood her Em- 
peror. Immediately Mexico claimed California, as well 
as Texas, Arizona and New Mexico as a portion of 
her empire, although the people of California, with the 
exception of a handful of Mexicans, had never shown the 
least desire of change of government, for the greatest 
number of her settlers were Spaniards or their children 
who were intensely loyal to the Crown of Spain. Here we 
will add that no person who held any office of importance 
was any other than a Spaniard, or of purely Spanish blood 
or parentage, hence missionaries, bishops, army and navy- 
officers, surgeons, etc. were all ''children of Spain," the 
highest decoration that a mixed blood could attain in the 
Spanish army of California or of Mexico was that of 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 43 

Corporal or Sergeant. But when Mexico gained her 
independence all these corporals and sergeants were 
suddenly made generals by their country, Mexico; and 
here was clearly seen "who was who" for all mixed bloods 
as well as those of purely Indian birth, both in Mexico 
and California rallied around their standard, the new 
Mexican flag; in this number we will only except many of 
the Christian Indians, in California, who clung piteously 
to the missions, and who had more of their share of suffer- 
ing. This state of affairs enabled the new Mexican au- 
thorities, exultant over their victory in the gain of their 
independence, to send several war vessels to Monterey 
late in 1822 and demand of Governor Sola, the surrender 
of Cahfornia in the name of Emperior Augustin Iturbide. 
As we have already seen, nowhere in Spain's New World 
possessions was loyalty to the mother country more in- 
tense than in California, and the people, army and navy 
were loud in their demonstrations of opposition, and ex- 
pressions of willingness were offered to the governor to 
fight the intrusion of Mexico to the end. But the com- 
parative handful of soldiers of the various garrisons, as 
well as the few ships which the Spanish could muster in 
California were no match to the overwhelming forces from 
Mexico, and Governor Sola considered it no cowardly 
act but rather his conscience-bound duty to prevent a 
useless carnage, wisely preferring an honorable surrender 
under the circumstances. The prudence of this decision 
was soon seen in a clearer light by the people. It was thus 
that the grand old flag of Spain was hurled from her state 
fifty- three years after she had been hoisted amid the bless- 
ing of Junipero Serra, the salutes of her proud ships and 
the loyal acclamations of Portola and her other gallant 
sons. Now Spanish rule was virtually ended in Cali- 
fornia, but we repeat, not dishonorably. Spain's work 



44 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

was well done, her chief purpose gained, namely, the 
exploration and christianizing of California. 

As it took sometime for Mexico to mobilize her troops 
and settle her rule in California, the Royal Presidio of 
Monterey was not immediately emptied of its ofi&cers or 
of the Spanish famihes, whose positions entitled them to 
a residence there, and who continued to live there close 
on to 1824. Thus although the old familiar standard 
gave place to Mexico's new red, white and green, the 
imprint of Spanish rule remained. 

Indeed it was several years before Mexico could change 
the face of California, and the Spanish element continued 
to rule social life at least to a great extent through vir- 
tually all the Mexican period. The Mexican society of 
the time certainly contained some excellent exceptions, 
but as a general rule it was a sad contrast to that of the 
preceding period, nor had the ten governors of this era 
the energy or standing of the ever remembered Portold, 
Borica, de Neve, Arrillaga or Sola. At times, the Mexican 
authorities treated Spaniards shabbily for it is important 
to note that contrary to what many histories state, 
Spaniards unanimously refused to take the Constitutional 
Oath of Allegiance to Mexico, and withdrew as a conse- 
quence from all public affairs, only inasmuch as their 
family interests or the good of the community demanded 
their intervention. Thus we find no Spaniard as Governor, 
General, or the like during this period. But here a curi- 
ous thing occurred. In later years when writers and his- 
torians of California became numerous many Mexicans 
declared themselves Spaniards or classed themselves as 
of purely Spanish descent, passing as such into some his- 
tories, while at the same time they did not hesitate to 
"sting" the Spanish name; and there are many Cali- 
fornia families who are referred to as "Spanish" whose 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 45 

ancestors in the baptismal and marriage records of the 
various mission archives are recorded as "neofita de la 
mission" ("neophyte of the mission") for the Spanish 
missionaries were most accurate of details, and their 
records of marriages, baptisms and funerals are like 
sketches of the persons concerned; parentage, birth, all 
are given in detail. Thus a child born of Spanish parents 
is referred to as "de calidad Espanola" ("of Spanish 
quahty") or if of some other purely foreign extraction 
the same is mentioned. And fortunate indeed, that this 
care of detail was had in the new country, else how would 
much valuable knowledge be obtained? 

During our narrative we do not wish to lose sight of 
the fact that we have professed our work to be primarily 
a work of love, avoiding bitter truth, which can do no 
good, and avoiding personalities, hence the absence of 
names may be noted in this chapter, but it is invariably 
the unpleasant duty of a writer to tell some unpleasnt 
things in a historical sketch, else how could justice be 
done to others, and how straighten misunderstandings? 
We do not wish to merely cast aspersions at the Mexican 
race or any other, for the gross and sordid not to say 
sinful dehght of doing so, but we wish to present to the 
reader plain facts of this period of history. Here we will 
add that even as "there is beauty in a blade of grass" 
there were and are good qualities and virtues in many 
individual Mexicans, but we cannot but wonder at the 
contrast of the two first periods of our state's history, 
and at the difference so vast between two races and char- 
acters so often absurdly confused. Here, we must men- 
tion perhaps the most deplorable incidents of this period, 
incidents to which in spite of ourself we have so often 
alluded, namely the Acts of Secularization of the missions. 
First, we will mention that some writers accuse Spain of 



46 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

having passed an Act of Secularization of Mission prop- 
erty in 1 8 13, but such an assertion is considered unfounded 
by good authorities, perhaps it had rise from the fact that 
disturbances against Spanish rule were felt in Mexico as 
early as that period and echoes of it reached the small 
Mexican faction of California, causing much uneasiness 
to the missionaries. But three Acts of Secularization of 
the missions were passed in the years 1826, 1829 and 1835. 
And what did not the good fathers with their neophytes 
and converts suffer! And what did not the many loyal 
friends of these beloved fathers not suffer with them 
through sympathy! Indeed no Spaniard or his des- 
cendants can speak of those Acts without the crimson of 
just indignation mounting to the cheek. But Spaniards 
were powerless to check the lawlessness of the times. 
The missions were gradually but slowly dispossessed of 
their lawful property, and all their wealth confiscated, 
several times were many of the dear Spanish fathers 
deported; they returned to Spain where a warm welcome 
awaited them, but how sad to leave their missions reared 
by the most heroic labors of the "martyr stuff" within 
them or their immediate predecessors, Serra, Lasuen, 
Lopez, Dumetz, Crespi, Paloii, names "held in benedic- 
tion;" and what would become of their poor converted 
Indians who clung to them so faithfully and whom they 
had raised to the plane of christian men and women from 
nakedness, savagery and paganism! Besides the mis- 
sionaries, many other Spaniards, too, were put on a list of 
those to be deported, among these there would not have 
been much resistance offered, as the changes of the gov- 
ernment were sad enough, but before the resolution was 
carried out, while many of them were settling their affairs 
and preparing to leave, a few of the better class of Mexi- 
cans interposed, saying, "the Spaniards are of greater 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 47 

value to the Province than any harm which could ever 
come from their presence, it behooves us to let them 
remain," so under the condition that they would not be 
interfered with, and that no oath of allegiance to Mexico 
would be forced from them, the Spanish famihes remained, 
and their presence indeed was of "greater value" than for 
which credit has been given them. American, English 
and Russian trading ships continued to make their 
appearance in Monterey, to these were added French 
ships. Several mercantile estabhshments existed, carried 
on chiefly by Spaniards and Enghshmen, and gay little 
social gatherings and dances still went on. 

In 1823 Mexico overthrew her empire and established 
a repubHc. But throughout this period, disturbances and 
guerrillas scarcely ever ceased, while the gradual but sure 
devastation of the missions and the behaviour of the 
authorities towards the beloved padres heightened the 
indignation of all noble-minded citizens and increased 
the unpopularity of the governors and authorities, most 
of whom were so very different to the Spanish governors, 
who at all times declared themselves "loyal sons of mother 
Church" and of whom no record of the practice of the 
contrary exists save a very few minor differences in de- 
fining the extent of military and ecclesiastical power. 
Good Bishop Garcia Diego, Bishop of California and 
worthy Prince of the Church was also a sufferer on sev- 
eral occasions from the disrespect of the civil authorities 
of Mexico, who even tried to prevent his landing in Mon- 
terey, the seat of the diocese then. Let us repeat a few 
Mexican authorities were exceptions of this type, but as 
we have said, these were few indeed, and slowly Mexican 
power began to wane. United States, England and France 
all stood in line for possession of Cahfornia as soon as a 
ripe opportunity presented itself. This plan was most 



48 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

welcome to the Spaniards, who contrary to the state- 
ments of some prominent historians, entertained no dis- 
like for any of these nations. Spaniards, like some others 
only wished that a happier and better government would 
supplant the inactive yet turbulent government of 
Mexico, who had hurled the Spanish flag from her posi- 
tion years before and despoiled the missions of their 
wealth and glory. Thus United States Consul, Thomas 
Larkin was always well received in the homes of the 
Spanish families and in turn Mr. Larkin always referred 
to them in words of praise. Meantime, things went from 
bad to worse, a change of government seemed inevitable. 
We will soon see how this came about. 

The only things for which Mexican rule in California 
was noted, was the continuation of the making of large 
land grants, and an easy, careless existence without the 
"hurry and flurry" of to-day; feasting, making merry, 
and great parties in the "rancherias" where there were 
always large "spreads;" it was during this period chiefly 
that the typical Mexican dishes of tamales, enchiladas, 
and others which are still relished in CaUfornia were 
introduced in this province. In a word this was the period 
of the sweet "manana," where everyone seemed to have 
time to enjoy the "dolce far niente" and exercised an 
open handed generosity with regard to the "fleeting goods 
of earth." 




CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 49 

CHAPTER VI 

CALIFORNIA PASSES FROM MEXICAN TO AMERICAN RULE 

HE year 1846 found the Mexican govern- 
ment in California struggling with a poor 
exchequer and some of its leaders in an 
unfriendly mood towards one another on 
account of petty differences, while France, 
England and United States waited eagerly 
for an opportunity to seize California, nor may their 
desire be termed dishonest since a change of govern- 
ment each day seemed more inevitable. 

Americans had often been treated with hostility and 
not given their lawful rights under the existing form of 
government in California. Just about this time United 
States Consul, Thomas 0. Larkin had been sent to Mon- 
terey and Captain John Fremont to Northern CaHfomia, 
the latter presumably to survey the country of the Rocky 
Mountains and the Pacific Coast in the interests of travel, 
but the real reason of the presence of these gentlemen in 
California was thought to be, that they should keep a 
close watch on the turn of affairs. 

When circumstances shaped themselves for the worst, 
a party of Americans at Sonoma headed by Captain 
Ezekiel Merritt gave the first signal of uprising which 
led to the establishment of the Bear Flag Repubhc of 
California. These men applied to Captain Fremont for 
help, but as Fremont was an officer in the United States 
army, he could not personally take a hand in the affair 
without authority from the United States Government, 
but left his men free to join Captain Merritt's ranks, and 



50 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

many did so. Under Captain Merritt the Americans 
captured horses and arms from a Mexican regiment on the 
march for Sonoma, also the garrison of Sonoma; encour- 
aged by this William B. Ide, one of Merritt's chief ad- 
visers and successor issued a Proclamation which launched 
the Bear Flag Republic into its existence of twenty-four 
days. This Proclamation was a praiseworthy document, 
stating the grievances of the American settlers, namely 
unfriendliness and threats of expulsion, also declaring 
the justice of overthrowing a government which had con- 
fiscated mission property calling upon the assistance of 
peace-loving citizens of California and promising not to 
molest persons who had not taken up arms. The Bear 
Flag of the Republic of California was then designed by a 
Mr. William Todd and hoisted in Sonoma on June 14, 
1846, also in Monterey. The American flag could not be 
hoisted because the actions of this party of Americans had 
virtually been unauthorized, and they would have been 
responsible to the United States for so doing, however, 
it was their intention to turn over their conquests to the 
United States as soon as possible. But the Mexican 
military authorities regarded the actions of these Ameri- 
cans as a gross hostility, and from all sides prepared to 
attack them. The position of this plucky little band now 
became very perilous, and again they laid their cause and 
dangers before Fremont, who was in his camp on the 
American River. Now the Captain did not hesitate in 
his decision and with a small mounted force began action 
on the field. Fremont was a man of many commendable 
qualities, possessed of bright mentality, unwavering and 
extremely loyal to the American cause, but he had his 
failings, among them being that on several occasions he 
took advantage of the tangled state of affairs, to seize 
upon personal property considered without the range of 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 51 

his lawful power to take, hence the dislike that exists for 
him among many old CaHfornia residents; still it was the 
"Pathfinder" as he was called, who with Commodore 
Robert Stocton, Lieutenant Archibald Gillespie in com- 
mand at Los Angeles, General Stephen Kearny and 
some others fought the brief battles which terminated 
in the raising of the American flag at the Custom House 
of Monterey on July 7, 1846, thus was CaHfornia ad- 
mitted into the Union as a territory. By a treaty of 
peace which followed the Mexican War, California was 
ceded to the United States for the sum of lit) 15,000,000 in 
1848. Among Monterey's landmarks Colton Hall is 
pointed out as the place where representative men from 
various parts of California convened and framed the first 
American Constitution for the State, September 3, 1849. 
On November third of the same year the first election 
was held, with the result that Peter H. Burnett was 
elected Governor, John McDougall, Lieutenant-Gov- 
ernor, and Edward Gilbert and John Wright first Congress- 
men from California. From Monterey the State Capital 
was removed to San Jose, where John Fremont and 
William Gwin were appointed senators, and it was they 
who pressed the Government to admit California as a 
state, with the result that CaHfornia was admitted as 
such on September 9, 1850. Major Robert Selden Gar- 
nett, U. S. A. designed the state seal. 

In 1854 the capital was removed to Sacramento from 
Benicia which held it one year, San Jose having held it 
two years as also Vallejo. 

The discovery of gold in 1849 brought on a mad rush 
of all classes of people into California and acts of law- 
lessness and violence became numerous and frequent; 
for the purpose of checking these disorders the "Com- 
mittee of Vigilance" was formed in San Francisco in 



52 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

1 85 1. This committee was composed of responsible men 
and much good came of it but like in so many enter- 
prises of the kind, many abuses were committed and many 
innocent persons were unjustly punished. 

As soon as affairs became settled and order estab- 
lished, American rule in Cahfornia became marked by 
progress and order, the discovery of gold brought on a 
wonderful increase in population and more towns and 
cities sprung throughout the state. 

Much indeed could be said of the present, but as our 
story is only a brief sketch intended to deal chiefly with 
the beloved old missions and missionaries, and unravel 
if but a few of the tangled skeins of misrepresentation 
cast about the older history of the state which is more 
wrapt in mystery, with warm gratitude for what the 
present is and for what the future will bring, we will 
return to the traces of the good fathers whose missions 
are still the wonders of California, with them we can 
still hear the chimes of mission bells. 





CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 53 

CHAPTER VII 
MISSION ANECDOTES AND HYMNS 

TOLD OF FATHER VICENTE SARRIA 

|ATHER Vicente Sarria, a venerable and 
saintly missionary in charge of Mission 
Nuestra Senora de la Soledad at the time 
the first two acts of Secularization were 
passed, was one of the keenest sufiferers 
from the injustices of the times, under- 
going untold labors and hardships, which in no small 
degree contributed to his death in 1833, which found 
him at his post of duty at the mission. Father 
Sarria's reputation for sanctity was wel known through- 
out California, particurlarly in Monterey and Soledad, 
and after his death it was no strange thing to 
hear both from Caucasian and Indian such an ejacula- 
tion as "alma de nuestro Padre Sarria, ayudanos con tu 
intercesion" (soul of our Father Sarria help us by your 
intercession). Of course this pious demonstration was 
not public because for many wise reasons, the church 
forbids the public veneration or invocation of a saint 
until the required process of canonization has authorized 
it, however, the allowable private invocation was freely 
practiced as it has been done in the case of other saintly 
missionaries, namely, Junipero Serra, Magin Catala and 
others. And the following sweet legend is told of Padre 
Sarria. As the Indian carriers lowered the humble red- 
wood coffin which contained the Father's precious re- 



54 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

mains into the mission vaults, the edifice was filled with 
an exquisite fragrance as of roses, and this story told with 
all earnestness was given much credence about the mission 
towns. While not authenticated by infallible investiga- 
tion, may not this incident be classed at least as a prob- 
abihty by the spiritual minded? For is it not in the power 
of the God of the beautiful in nature to proclaim thus His 
appreciation for the heroic charity of one of His servants, 
especially to strengthen the faith of the sorely tried con- 
vert Indians who clung so lovingly to the mission in the 
days of its trials? 



FATHER JUNIPERO SERRA's PROMISE 

One beautiful summer day while walking about the 
San Carlos Mission Garden, Junipero Serra pondered 
over the wonderful progress of California both in the 
spiritual and material order; filled with joy the good 
priest blessed the land, and made a solemn promise to 
celebrate one hundred masses for the future peace and 
prosperity of CaHfornia, moreover he promised to begin 
the fulfillment of his promise on the following November, 
twenty-fourth, feast of Saint Charles, the patron saint of 
the mission. Soon after, the venerable Serra was over- 
taken by his last illness and went to his reward before 
November, the twenty-fourth. But every year on the 
eve of the feast of Saint Charles just before midnight a 
ghostly procession wended its way to San Carlos Mission, 
for all the missionaries, Spaniards, or their descendants 
who had ever lived in California would arise from their 
graves and with them all the Christian Indians of the 
mission towns joined the ''ghostly throng" to San Carlos 
where Junipero Serra would arise from his tomb and cele- 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 55 

brate mass while the spirits sang their ancient hymns, 
after which all the scene vanished like silver fumes of 
smoke, and this continued for one hundred years. This 
most unlikely legend has been told in beautiful Spanish 
and English poetry, and for all its unlikelihood has found 
its way with its weird charm into many homes. 



A TRUE STORY 

Somewhere in the eighteen fifties a non-catholic of 
very irreligious character, made targets of the eyes of a 
statue of Saint Benedict, belonging to San Carlos Mission, 
taking advantage of the neglected condition of the place 
at the time. A few days after this proceeding the man was 
struck blind. This incident is no legend, but within the 
remembrance of many old residents of Monterey. The 
unfortunate man later acknowledged that his calamity 
was a direct visitation of Almighty God for his gross and 
intentional irreverence to the image of a saint. The writer 
refrains from giving the name of this man w^ho has long 
ere this passed to the "Great Beyond" but many Mon- 
tereyans, who will read this sketch will know it. 

Countless stories and legends of mission times are 
told and written without the least foundation for veracity, 
for example the story of "The Lost Pearls of Loretto;" 
others are founded on facts but distorted beyond recog- 
nition. Still this is not startling in a land as full of senti- 
ment and romance as Cahfornia, where so many writers, 
(most of them "New-comers") have given vent to their 
poetical imaginations, and it is not hard to believe that 
the eventful history of the state contained many au- 
thentic stories, and legends with some ground of truth. 



56 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 




CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 



57 




X^>^. 



SS CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 



*HYMN TO THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION 
OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY. 

"Para dar vida mortal 
A Un Dios Autor de la vida 
Sois Maria concebida 
Sin pecado original." 

"Para humillar la serpiente 
Que con su mortal veneno 
Dejo todo el mundo Ueno 
De su aliento pestilente 
Que marco a todo viviente 
Con el sello mas fatal 
Sois Maria concebida 
Sin pecado original." 

"Como Ester la mas amada 
Del mas generoso Asuero 
Gracia recibes primero 
Que estes del crimen manchada 
Pues para no ser contada 
En la indignacion real 
Sois Maria concebida 
Sin pecado original." 

"Ciudad fuerte y mas hermosa 
Que de Asirio acometida 
No lograra verte herida 
Su saeta ponzonosa 
Pues para ser victoriosa 
De su poder infernal 
Sois Maria concebida 
Sin pecado original." 

"Luna Uena de esplandor 
Sin ser nunca eclipsada 
Porque fuiste iluminada 
De un sol de poder y amor 

*This beautiful hymn is found in many ancient Spanish books of devotion. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 59 

Pues por no ver el horror 
De un eclipse criminal 
Sois Maria concebida 
Sin pecado original." 

"Mujer heroica y valiente 
Que con divino valor 
Pisas gloriosa el furor 
De la enganosa serpiente 
Pues por no temer el diente 
De aqeste monstro infernal 
Sois Maria concebida 
Sin pecado original." 

"Virgen que de nuestro suelo 
Subes vestida de estrellas 
Mas bella que las mas bellas 
A ser la gloria del cielo 
Pues para tan alto vuelo 
Con un favor sin igual 
Sois Maria concebida 
Sin pecado original." 

"Patrona la mas amada 
De nuestro suelo Espanol 
Nuestro mas luciente sol 
En la noche desgraciada 
Pues para ser proclaraada 
Con el voto mas cordial 
Sois Maria concebida 
Sin pecado original." 

"Concede en fin Madre amada 
A tus hijos este dia 
La mas cristiana alegria 
Y la muerte deseada 
Para que seas cantada 
En la patria celestial 
Sois Maria concebida 
Sin pecado original." 



6o 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 



CHAPTER VIII 

RETROSPECTION OF THE WORK OF THE SPANISH MISSION- 
ARIES, EXPLORERS AND SETTLERS AND THELR 

PLACE IN California's appreciation 




E HAVE followed the venerable band of 
missionaries from their homes in Spain, 
where fired with zeal for the conversion 
of the savage heathen of the New World 
they set out for the comparatively newly 
discovered land of Mexico, where Spain 
had already a few estabhshments and 
churches, an archbishopric in the city of 
Mexico, and the Franciscan Fathers a well equipped mon- 
astery and mission at San Fernando in the northern part 
of the country. We have seen the Spanish Franciscans' 
zeal in the land of the Aztec, and we have also seen the 
noble cooperation given them by the government and civil 
authorities of Catholic Spain. We have traced the mis- 
sionaries' steps, followed by gallant Portola, and his fellow 
officers and men, and have sympathized and rejoiced with 
them in their hardships and joys. We have no doubt, 
often marveled at the stupendous work of the Sons of 
Saint Francis in the conversion of the unenlightened 
heathen, and have seen the Indian tribes turn from the 
worship of idols to the altar of the one true God. 

Let us now give a brief glance at the work so nobly 
done by the immortal heroes which Cathohc Spain sent 
to these shores. Many a time, winter blasts of misunder- 
standing and wrong have been cast upon them, and many 
a time have noble sympathizers fought just battles with 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 6i 

prejudice in their behalf, with the blessed result that the 
thickest clouds of errors and "threadbare calumnies" 
have almost entirely disappeared, and with them the 
remaining mists of wrong are fast vanishing at the power- 
ful approach of truth's sun, so that in relating the glories 
of that legion of splendid characters whose names are so 
tenderly clasped about the fondest memories of mission 
times, we shall not forget their friends and champions 
of later years. 

But first let us see what the brave Spanish pioneers 
did for California. We will begin with the missionaries. 
To them we owe the conversion of the heathen and savage 
Indians, r hich work was super-human in itself, and which 
contrary to the statements of libelers, the fathers accom- 
plished with heroic patience and charity, teaching the 
Indians besides religion, useful trades, civilizing them, 
and taking such conscientious care of them that they made 
a nightly round of their quarters, not with whip in hand 
to punish imaginary misdemeanor, but to see that the 
spiritual and temporal welfare of their converts and 
neophytes, was guarded, and so great was the attachment 
of the Indians to the fathers that if a father was called on 
business from one mission to another, the Indians would 
follow him a long distance weeping. Very few of the 
Indians were taught the art of reading, not because the 
fathers were in any way unwilling to teach it, but because 
for this one art most of the Indians showed no desire or 
willingness to learn, yet this has given the ever ready, 
unscrupulous writer food for saying that "the fathers 
endeavored to keep the Indians in ignorance" and the 
healthy rule of the fathers with its hours of prayer, labor, 
instruction and recreation for the Indian families in the 
mission quarters, has been distorted by erroneous his- 
tories, and statements have been made by some writers 



62 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

to the effect that "the Indians were treated harshly and 
oppressed." Whereas under what nation were Indians 
or unenlightened natives christianized, allowed to remain 
in their lands or treated with more humanity than under 
Spain or her missionaries, wherever they explored and 
wherever they went? 

"Harsh, oppressive, endeavoring to keep the Indians 
in ignorance," if such actions mean all that these saintly 
missionaries accomplished, if they mean their leaving 
refinement, Christianity, fond home and kindred in dis- 
tant Spain to brave untold hardships, nay, martyrdom, 
to rescue souls from paganism, and if such conduct as 
"harshness, oppression, endeavoring to keep the Indians 
in ignorance" could be compatible with the practice of 
heroic virtue and acts of mortification of mind and body 
which to the spiritual man or woman appear beyond words of 
admiration, to the scoffer and frivolous (but for this latter 
class we are not writing) foolish and impossible. The mis- 
sions too, with their honest wealth and industry were Cali- 
fornia's first centers of enlightenment and refinement. The 
Spanish missionaries were scholars as well as religious, 
and their institutions were California's cradles of litera- 
ture, music and learning hand in hand with religion. To 
these early fathers wt owe the first paintings and statues 
brought to California, while their well equipped missions, 
even contained medicine chests and medical books, to 
them we also owe the first architecture in the building of 
the missions, the first agricultural implements, even the 
first system of irrigation, in the state; to these we may add 
the first stock of sheep, cattle, horses, the first fruits, 
vineyards and teeming grain fields, yes, even the first 
roses of California were brought here by them, and it was 
from the missions that Dr. Robert Semple borrowed the 
printing type, wherewith he printed the first newspaper 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 63 

in California, which appeared in Monterey in 1846, 
making the letter "w" by joining two vs as the Spanish 
alphabet contains twenty-five letters, "w" excepted. 

And if the Spanish missionaries did so much what did 
the Spanish civil and military authorities and settlers do? 
To Spanish explorers we owe the discovery and explora- 
tion of California, as well as of South America, Mexico 
and other portions of the New World, including the 
Pacific Ocean; indeed is it not to Spain and her good 
Queen Isabella the Catholic, to whom we really owe the 
discovery of America by Columbus? But not to deviate 
from Spain's work in California, it was the early Spanish 
governors who first framed laws and drew up a constitu- 
tion in California, and it was they who made the first land 
grants, it was by Spanish explorers too that the first maps 
of California were drawn, under Spanish rule were many 
of the present towns and cities founded, from Spain came 
the first dawn of refinement and civilization, the first 
army and navy, the first artists, musicians, physicians 
and skilled workmen, in fine the first white child born in 
California was born of Spanish parents settled in Monte- 
rey. And what was the record of Spain's dominion in 
CaHfornia? Setting aside unfounded calumnies as absurd 
as the one which claims that Philip II passed a law sen- 
tencing to death any foreigner who set foot on Spain's 
dominions in the New World, relegating such lies to where 
they belong, Spain's rule in her New World possessions, 
including California was marked by humanity as well as 
energy. Cortes, Pizzaro, Vizcaino, Coronado, Menendez, 
Ponce de Leon, Cabeza de Vaca, Balboa, as well as the 
later "pathfinders" governors and viceroys of Catholic 
Spain, were men of honor, and sobriety to whose names 
no "butcheries and cruelties" may be justly attached. 

Perhaps one of the best proofs of Catholic Spanish 



64 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

humanity is the fact of the preservation of the aborigines 
of the land wherever Spanish conquests were made. 
Take for example, the statistics of the last census of Mexi- 
co which reveal that of a population of 15,000,000 souls 
7,000,000 are pure Indian 5,000,000 mestizos or of mixed 
Indian and foreign extraction and only 3,000,000 foreign- 
ers or of Mexican birth but of purely foreign extraction. 
Take, California, Arizona, New Mexico and other former 
Spanish possessions of whom the same may be said in 
proportion. In these places no Indian reservations are 
seen as where the Puritans held sway. If Spain were 
guilty of the cruelties so falsely imputed to her, Mexico 
in particular would be a Spanish or Latin-American 
Republic, as it is, she may hardly be termed as such. 
But Catholic Spain acted as explorer, civihzer and with 
her venerable missionaries sponsor to the conversion of the 
heathen tribes of her New World colonies, leaving in 
them the traces of her enlightenment and Christianity, yes, 
leaving them monuments of her humanity! 

On the absurd and ludicrous application of the term 
''Spanish" in our midst to many persons who have no 
claim to it by either birth or descent we will not dwell, 
as we would not cheapen our sketch by stooping to dis- 
cuss such ignorance or insult our intelligent readers by 
writing on such fooHshness, we will only ask their per- 
mission to say that many so-called intelligent people have 
no conception of the Spanish type, race or character, but 
these we will leave "a la luna de Valencia" as an ancient 
Spanish saying would express such cases. The Cali- 
fornia families of Spanish descent are comparatively few, 
this being noted especially by Spanish visitors to Cali- 
fornia. 

But what of Spanish generosity at home, when the 
missionaries were toiling for souls in the New World? 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 65 

Many a pious Spaniard in Spain and in Mexico subscribed 
immense sums for the missions of California, both for the 
Jesuit and the PYanciscan missions. Thus we find the 
pious Marquis de Villa Puente subscribing $200,000 for 
"missions, vessels and other necessities of California." 
The Duchess of Gandia subscribed $60,000 for the same 
purpose in 1767 and many others followed the same ex- 
ample until the "Pius Fund of the Missions of California" 
amounted to over two million dollars. At the time of the 
Secularization of the Missions, the Mexican Government 
confiscated a large remaining portion of this "Pious 
Fund." In 1853 the Spanish Archbishop Alemany, then 
Bishop of Monterey and successor of Bishop Diego from 
whom the "Pious Fund" had been taken, started a liti- 
gation which was continued in turn by his worthy suc- 
cessor Archbishop Patrick Riordan of the archdiocese of 
San Francisco, with the good result that Mexico was made 
to pay the sum of $43,050 in Mexican currency annually 
as the interest at six per cent on the sum of $1,460,682 of 
the "Pious Fund" which the national treasury of Mexico 
had appropriated on the promise of Mexico to act as 
trustee of the fund and pay an interest of six per cent 
which it had failed to pay since its appropriation at the 
time of the Mexican regime in California. Moreover, 
Mexico had agreed to pay this interest to the object in- 
tended by the donors of the fund, namely, "to the church, 
for the conversion of the natives of California, for the 
establishment, maintenance and extension of the Catholic 
Church, her faith and worship, in said country of Upper 
and Lower California." The litigation was won through 
the intervention of the United States Government which 
Archbishop Riordan invoked through his counsel, and 
decided by arbitrators under the Hague Convention in 
1899. The first payment was made on February 2, 1903. 



66 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

Perhaps it is not amiss to quote here a small portion 
of the speech delivered in Washington, D. C. by Hon. 
Joseph Scott of Los Angeles on the occasion of a banquet 
following the unveiling ceremonies of the memorial 
erected in honor of Christopher Columbus by Act of 
Congress. Among the speakers present at the banquet 
were Ex-President William Taft (then president), Cardi- 
nal Gibbons, Speaker Champ Clark, Ex-speaker Joseph 
Cannon, Congressman Underwood, Judge Victor DowHng 
of the Supreme Court of New York and many other 
notable men of the nation. 



"It affords me unbounded pleasure to have an opportunity 
to deliver an expression, feeble though it be, of the sentiments of 
the Knights of Columbus of the great West, and particularly of 
California, regarding the significance of this great day. Mr, John 
Barrett of the Pan-American Union has already given you food for 
sober thought in the parallel he has drawn of the marvelous ac- 
tivity and resourcefulness of the Latin-American republics. Pos- 
sibly I may be permitted at this time to inject a suggestion that, 
despite the remarks of the previous speaker about Boston as the 
modern Athens and the seat of universal learning, "Modern Ath- 
ens" has nothing in common with the memories aroused by con- 
templation of the events which we celebrate today. It may be 
well to tell our friends from New England that before the so-called 
Anglo-Saxon had set foot as a colonist upon the American soil, 
the followers of Columbus had penetrated into the heart of, Kansas 
and gone down as far as Buenos Ayres. I want to lay stress upon 
the fact that we have not noted too emphatically today that it was 
the great Spanish race, with its strong and sterling faith, which 
accomplished this wonderful mission of civilization. Too long have 
we endured the stress of so-called history written by Prescott and 
others, some of whom ought to have been put in the Ananias club 
before they were born. For nearly three centuries the Spanish 
race, with its indomitable faith, pursued almost alone its mission 
of civilization and evangelization of the aborigines of America. 
Before the Pilgrim Fathers had landed on Plymouth Rock, the 
Catholic Spaniard had acquired a knowledge of the Indian language 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 67 

sufficient to enable him to translate the Bible into the Aztec Indian 
language, so that the new Indian neophyte could read the story of 
"God's greatest Book" in his mother tongue. 



THE COURAGE OF CATHLOIC SPAIN 

I wish to advise those of you who speak now of a burden of 
four days and nights in luxurious Pullman cars to step out on the 
soil of California as though you had performed a deed of heroism, 
that a Spanish soldier, Cabeza de Vaca, with the courage of primi- 
tive Christianity, walked from Florida to the Gulf of California, 
though it took him seven years to accomplish his task; and the 
wonderfully brave Friar Marcos de Niza pioneered his way on foot 
thirteen hundred miles into the heart of Arizona through deserts 
and hordes of Apaches, in his efforts to plant the cross of civiliza- 
tion among the children of the new world. Nay, the Grand Canyon 
of Arizona, now one of the greatest natural wonders of the world, 
was seen by a young Spanish lieutenant and his twenty soldiers 
three hundred years before the Anglo-Saxon took a glimpse at its 
wonderful and awe-inspiring beauty. These and other similar 
facts are attested by the report of the Bureau of Ethnology of 
Washington, as well as by many other reliable authorities, includ- 
ing that singularly gifted and scholarly student of Spanish history 
and folk lore, Charles F. Lummis of Los Angeles, himself a Puritan 
on both sides of his house for several generations back. It was the 
fortitude of this Spanish race, coupled by its strong devotion to 
the faith which you and I profess, which enabled them to solve 
the Indian problem as it has never been attempted since. While 
under our present system of the government of this United States, 
the Indian has been an outcast and a derelict to be robbed and 
cheated by his white brother, yet on the other hand the Spanish 
missionary brought into the life of the simple native of the new 
world the wholesome light of Christianity, which made him recog- 
nize in the Red Man the same soul which was made in the image 
and likeness of the common Creator of us all. In that spirit of 
brotherhood and charity he obtained the confidence and good will 
of the Indians, almost without exception, throughout the length 
and breadth of the countries that he explored. And while his path 
was beset with dangers from the grim forces of nature, and occa- 
sionally the crown of martyrdom was given to him by an unthinking 



68 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

hand of those he was coming to evangelize, yet he faltered not in 
his footsteps. 

Today the memory of Columbus may be coupled with and 
attributed, on our part, to the splendid heroism and Christian 
fortitude of the great Spanish race which continued the work of 
Columbus with all that it entailed for the betterment of humanity." 



In compliance with our promise not to forget the 
friends of the missionaries and of their compatriots, of 
today, we will first speak of California's wonderful en- 
thusiasm in the celebration of the Bi-centenary of Juni- 
pero Serra's birth. Of the privileged thousands who 
visited Monterey on November 23, 1913 and made a 
pilgrimage to Serra's tomb at San Carlos Mission, how 
many will efiface that sight from their minds in years to 
come? But this awe-inspiring sight to which Reverend 
Raymond Mestres and the Franciscan Fathers of San 
Francisco, contributed so much, and in which the Third 
Order of Saint Francis so prominently participated will 
be yearly renewed. Ecclesiastical and civil authorities, 
towns and cities, individuals, all had the "right spirit." 
The accounts of the press were glowing. Mr. Frank 
Powers of Carmel-by-the-Sea was Cahfornia's represen- 
tative at the celebration which Spain did not fail to hold 
in honor of her illustrious son; and Mr. Powers indeed 
proved a worthy representative, returning to Cahfomia 
with renewed enthusiasm for the saintly Serra, and his 
lectures have been Hstened to with keen delight. And 
can any praise seem superfluous for California's apostles 
in particular for the saintly Serra? At the civil exercises, 
held in Monterey on the occasion of the celebration we 
are speaking of. Senator Reginaldo del Valle, of Los 
Angeles, Mr. Michael WiUiams and Mr. Charles Phillips 
of San Francisco each paid exquisite tributes to our hero 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 69 

whom the opening hnes of Mr. Phillips' beautiful ode 
described as: 

"A young boy dreaming by the Spanish main: 
Knee-high in waving grain 
He halts at eve and dreams, 
Where green Majorca fronts the cycling sea, 

And far worlds ceaselessly 
Beckon with passing sail and swinging tide. 
And plunging galleons ride 
Home from adventure, or away, away 

To silken bright Cathay, 
Or where dark India her golden treasure yields; 
A young boy dreaming in his father's fields, 
Who plucks a lily from the bending wheat 
And stands with veiled gaze and searching eyes 
Pale with some great emprise. 
Beyond the homing waters of his isle. 

Beyond Majorca's skies; — 
And dreams and dreams the while!" 

"And they who love him wonderingly ask: 

"What lad is this of ours 

Who dreams away the hours, 
And when the windy night-tide running sings. 

So strangely seems 

Converse to hold with far compelling things? 
Or what these spirit-smiling ecstasies," 

They reverent cry, 

"That halt him at his task 
And hold him tranced in bright reveries? 

Is this our lad, indeed. 

Who with such Heaven-given grace — 

Ay, with the light of Heaven on his face! — 

Makes question of the very world about?" 

One of the sweetest features of this day was that here- 
after by a decree of Governor Hiram Johnson, who also 
did not fail to send a representative to Monterey in the 



70 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

person of Judge Griffin, November the twenty-fourth 
was declared a state hoHday. May Serra day long be 
welcomed by loyal Cahfomians! We cannot close this 
chapter after speaking of the bright constellation of the 
past which appeared in Cahfornia skies so many years ago, 
and whose traces we so cherish, without saying a few 
words about that worthiest of worthy movements to 
restore the dear old missions of El Camino Real according 
to their traditional lines, here again Reverend Father 
Mestres of Monterey deserves the greatest credit in this 
enterprise, and the Knights of Columbus of the Cali- 
fornia councils have proved themselves great helpers in 
the plan. King Alfonso, his minister, Seiior Juan Riano, 
the Marquis de la Vega y Inclan who will be King Al- 
fonso's representative at the Panama-Pacific Exposition 
of 191 5, are hearty supporters and sponsors of this 
movement, and with cooperation from faithful friends 
and the sanction of the Bishop of the diocese of 
Monterey and Los Angeles, we have no doubt that 
these glorious landmarks, some of which have alas 
too long been allowed to go to "wreck and ruin" while 
others are still more or less neglected, after the cruel 
years which extinguished their sanctuary lamps, left their 
altars bare and their belfries silent save for the hooting 
of the night owls, will ere long be in the proper repair to 
hand down with pride to posterity; and to further repair 
these holy temples and place them under their historical 
and original plans the most fitting priests to whom we 
could entrust them (at least wherever the necessary 
satisfactory arrangements are possible) are Spanish 
priests, compatriots of their founders, this too would 
serve to continue and strengthen the old friendly relations 
between Spain and Cahfornia, and as whatever Spanish 
priests would take charge of the missions, would be scholarly 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 71 

men speaking both English and Spanish, the EngHsh speak- 
ing congregations would be well served. About three of the 
old missions are under Spanish priests now. Let us then 
not cease our efforts until every mission cross gleams 
gloriously in the radiance of the Cahfornia sun, until 
the devotional chimes of mission bells peal forth again 
from every silent belfry, until the altar light beams 
again before each tabernacle enclosing the Eucharistic 
Presence, until the empty niches contain again the images 
which decked them as of yore, until each tomb of sainted 
missionary is restored, until mass is again daily said 
within these consecrated walls, and finally until San Carlos 
of Carmelo is again a worthier Carmel, "for the greater 
honor and glory of God" and the praises of His Virgin 
Mother once more are sung about this smiling valley 
where the Christian Indian children gathered the beauti- 
ful wild flowers of the blooming meadows to adorn the 
hallowed shrines, ere chimed the Angelus at evenings 
mellow glow. 





72 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 



CHAPTER IX 

REVEREND RAYMOND M. MESTRES OF MONTEREY WRITES 
HISTORICAL DRAMA- 
IE AUTIFUL among beautiful historical dramas 
is the mission play "Fray Junipero" written 
by Reverend Raymond Mestres, pastor of 
San Carlos Church (Capilla Real de San 
Carlos) of Monterey. Many men and women 
have undertaken to write about mission 
times, but we may safely assert that this good priest so 
unassuming in what he does, is above all qualified to handle 
this subject, being first of all a rehgious, a native of Barce- 
lona, the Metropolis of the Province of Catalonia, which 
can claim Junipero Serra and so many of the early Spanish 
missionaries, explorers and settlers, and being too an 
artist and scholar in every way acquainted with the his- 
tory of the missions, having made it a special study during 
his twenty-seven years of residence (as a priest) in four 
mission towns of California, twenty-one of which have 
been spent in that chief of mission towns, Monterey. 

Unbiased, careful of detail and true to history, while 
not wanting in artistic setting "Fray Junipero" carries 
the audience in Act I back to the College of Fernando, 
when Junipero Serra received his commission to come to 
California as Father President of the Missionaries who 
were to christianize that "mysterious vineyard." Act II 
is a typical picture of California Indian Life. Act III 
depicts the landing of Serra and Portola on the shores 
of Monterey, the taking possession of the land in the name 
of King Carlos III and the celebration of Junipero Serra's 
first Mass in Monterey; all facts are taken from the ar- 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 73 

chives preserved in San Carlos Church, consequently 
historically authentic. Act IV pictures a piquant fiesta 
scene with Spanish dancing, the scene being laid in the 
Carmel Valley on the occasion of the baptism of the first 
white child born in Monterey. This child was bom of 
Spanish parents, Pasqual and Teresa Segura and in bap- 
tism received the name of Carlos. According to the 
records this baptism occurred in May 18, 1782, the cere- 
mony being performed by Fray Junipero Serra just two 
years before his death. With very slight changes in the 
names this incident is taken from the archives of San Car- 
los Mission. Act V represents Fray Junipero Serra receiv- 
ing the last Sacraments, his death and the grief of the people. 

In writing 'Tray Junipero" Reverend Raymond 
Mestres intended it to commemorate the Bi-centenary of 
our hero's birth, and was presented for the first time in 
Monterey on August 28th, 1913 by local talent. This will 
be an annual event at Monterey on the same date, Aug- 
ust 28th, which is the anniversary of Fray Junipero 
Serra's death. In spite of poor advertisement the first 
production of this drama was a decided success. It was 
intended to be played three nights, but by request a 
fourth night was added. 

As this sketch goes to press, the rehearsing of the 
second year of the production of "Fray Junipero" begins 
with great improvement in the staging, and a greater 
promise of success as it is now much more widely known. 

May an ancient Spanish Nativity Play for Christmas- 
tide, which Reverend Raymond Mestres intends to trans- 
late into English, and which contains glorious music, 
and a history of mission times, which this scholarly pastor 
of San Carlos Church has in store, soon delight Cali- 
fomians and California's yearly tide of tens of thousand 
visitors. 



74 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

APPENDIX 
♦LETTER OF JUNIPERO SERRA. 

"Long live Jesus, Mary and Joseph! 

"R. P. Fr. Miguel de Petra. 

"My dearest nephew, brother and Sir. 

"It was not for want of love that I did not answer some of your 
letters. For it was not merely bodily that I left my beloved coun- 
try. I could have been communicating with many persons by 
letters and friends, both in and outside our order, but, if our minds 
were constantly intent upon what we once left, what would be the 
use of leaving it? 

"I wrote a long letter to your reverence after your religious pro- 
fession. Besides, your reverence heard of me through the Padre 
Lector Verger, who is at present our guardian. I received your 
letter when I was among the Gentiles over three hundred leagues 
away from any Christian settlement. There is my life and there, 
I hope, God helping, to die. When this hour comes, some member 
of our province will take care to notify our brethren that they may 
pray for me, and then, your reverence will know it. What else 
does your reverence desire? Your reverence lives among saints, 
and, therefore I do not deem you in need of my advice and counsel, 
which indeed would be the only justifiable motive for my writing. 
"Let us improve and make good use of our time, let us walk 
worthy of the vocation in which we were called, let us work out 
our spiritual salvation, with fear and trembling, and that of our 
brethren, with the most ardent charity and zeal, and let all glory 
be to our great God. In connection with this, I took great pleasure 
in learning that your reverence was preaching a mission at Ivisa 
when Padre Commissary Verger passed through there. The time 
given to this apostolic mmistry with the blessing of your superiors, 
preaching in your words and deeds, hearing confessions with love 

•This letter was written by Junipero Serra soon after his arrival at the College 
of San Fernando, Mexico, on a business trip he made there four years 
after his coming to California. The letter was written to his nephew, 
also a priest, in Petra, Spain. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 75 

and patience, I believe, will be the best and most fruitful you ever 
spent. 

"Though a lukewarm, bad and an unprofitable servant, I 
remember every day in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, my only 
and most dear sister Juana, your mother, her children, and specially 
my Capuchin. I hope all of you do the same for me that the Lord 
may secure me from all dangers among these naked and barbarous 
peoples. Let this be our mutual correspondence, and let God do 
the rest. 

"And that I may give your reverence some news of my destina- 
tion, I beg your reverence to look on the maps of America. You 
will see in the shores of the South Sea, most improperly called 
Pacific, the Peninsula of California [Lower California]. I was 
there for a year in the capacity of President of the Missions already 
founded by the exiled Jesuit Fathers. Then followed north along 
the same coast and just a little before what is called Cabo Men- 
dosino, you will find in some maps, the title or name the Port of 
Monte Rey. 

"There your uncle lives, among those poor people. There I 
went with the first Christians in 1770. There I sang the first Mass 
and there I have been in company with Fr. Juan Crespi until the 
latter part of August. Then I left for this college in order to 
transact some very important business with the Most Excellent 
Lord Viceroy concerning the maintenance and increase of those 
Christian settlements and the establishment of those already pro- 
posed and planned, or that may be planned, 

■'Thanks to God, I have been kindly received and given close 
attention by His Excellency and he has granted me whatever I 
have asked of him; so, God helping, I hope for a quick and very 
extensive expansion and spreading of our Holy Faith and of the 
domains of our Catholic King. 

"In addition to one Mission where we spread Christianity in 
California [Lower California] which I called San Fernando de 
Vellixata, there are five already founded in that far off land; 
Monterey which said Padre Crespi and I administer, San Antonio 
de Padua, twenty-five leagues distant, with Padre President, Fr. 
Miguel Pieras and Fr. Buenaventura Sitjar; that of San Luis 
Obispo, twenty-five leagues farther away, where I placed two 
religious members of the Province of Catalonia, Padre Juncosa 
and Padre Cavallier, that of San Gabriel, seventy leagues farther 
away towards California [Lower California], for which I appointed 



76 CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 

one father from the Province of Los Angeles and another from that 
of Andalucia; and finally that of San Diego, which is the nearest 
to California [Lower California] though over one hundred leagues 
distant, and I appointed as ministers Padre Fr. Francisco Dumetz 
and Padre Fr. Luis Jaume. They are all working with earnestness 
and abundant fruit in their respective fields of labor. 

"When in 1769 I left California [Lower California], I appointed 
Padre Palou President of the Missions there and I have not seen 
him since; but now these missions, formerly in charge of the Fathers 
of the Society of Jesus, are being turned over to the Dominican 
Fathers. So said Padre Paloii with others, will come to 
us in order to found the Missions of San Buenaventura, Santa 
Clara and San Francisco for which missions I have already there 
the ornaments, the sacred vessels, utensils and other necessary 
things. 

"The number of Christians in those places, where the name of 
Jesus had never been spoken, though there are some in all the 
Missions, still up to the present, is not very great; because while 
we have been very busy building our poor houses, little churches, 
teaching some children to be interpreters, and providing other 
necessary things, our efforts could not equal our ardent desires. 

"Now that things are going, and His Excellency has given, 
upon my request, various things of which we stood in the greatest 
need, I hope in God, we shall reap abundant fruits from our 
humble work. And I say that our work is so-so, such as it is, be- 
cause, if I told you all we are doing, it might seem a great thing, 
when in reality, upon a closer view, it would seem very insignificant. 

"In spite of the cold, which is very intense in California, the 
lack of victuals, the poverty of our houses, I have been enjoying 
very good health, thanks be to God! But this trip to Mexico has 
been very hard on me. From the hardships of the journey, I 
arrived in the City of Guadalajara burning with fever. I was so 
sick and in such danger that the last Sacraments were administered 
to me a few days after. 

"As soon as the contmual fever became intermittent, I con- 
tinued my journey, and arrived in the city of Queretaro, again, 
so weak and sick, that fearing for my life, they administered to me 
the last Sacraments of the Church. Yet soon after I experienced 
a change for the better and finally I reached this Holy College on 
February 6th of this present year. I remained, however, for a 
long time exhausted, weak and without any ambition or appetite. 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 77 

"But now, blessed be God! I am restored and brought back to 
health, I am transacting the business for which I came, and feel 
ready to set out on my journey back to that vineyard of the Lord. 

"During my sickness in Queretaro, I was nursed with remark- 
able charity and diligence, by Padre Procurador Fr. Alexandre 
Llaneras, and soon after I arrived here, in this College of San 
Fernando, we heard of his death. He died of a serious fever. 
Death found him well prepared with all the Sacraments, assisted 
by Holy Communion, equipped with patience and entire con- 
formity to the will of God, thus preaching to all with his 
example. I beg your reverence to pray for him. 

"It is only once a year that we can receive letters from and send 
them to, this College. And if we can only once a year receive 
and write a letter, is it surprising that we are so slow to write to 
those living in another world? However, if with the help of God, 
I safely arrive in California, I may drop you a letter telling at least 
of my arrival, should there be nothing of more importance to com- 
municate to your reverence. Meanwhile, I send my best regards 
to your mother, my dearest sister, to my niece, and to all our 
brethren. Remember me to my beloved Dr. Onofre Verd, and to 
the other pupils of mine, friends and neighbors and acquaintances, 
specially to Fr. Rector de Selva, Dr. Jayme Font, and finally to 
all, not without the request that they pray to God, that His Divine 
Majesty deign, through His infinite mercy, to make me fit and 
worthy minister of His Divine Word, and grant me a holy and 
happy death. 

"From this Apostolic College de Propaganda Fide of San Fer- 
nando, Mexico, August 4, 1773. 

"May God keep your reverence for many years; 
"Most affectionate uncle, brother and servant. 

"FR. JUNIPERO SERRA." 



78 



CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 



THE MEANING OF CALIFORNIA MISSIONS 

BY RIGHT REV. BISHOP CONATY, OF LOS ANGELES 

In the mission celebrations which occur in California from time 
to time, there are two views which men take — the this-world-view 
and the other- world- view. In either view the missions stand out 
gloriously. In the first, the builders, who were the padres, are 
beheld as practical men possessing fine artistic sense and creative 
genius. From the memories of old Spain and the elemental ma- 
terials at hand, the forests, the soil and sunlight, they made the 
original picture-building which artists since have loved to paint, 
and poets loved to praise. From this same view-point the mission 
builders are seen as philanthropists who selected human materials 
as gross as the mud from which they made the adobe brick, and 
from these built up a civilization that was more wonderful than all 
the mission-edifices which remain as monuments to their altruistic 
efforts. 

But there is another view of the missions which must appeal 
especially to Catholics. Indeed it is natural to the farther-seeing 
Catholic eye. It is the other- world- view. It is the vision of souls. 
It is seen to have been the motive of every action of the master- 
builder padres. It is the reason for their exile here, the purpose 
of their sufferings, the object of their labor, the burden of their 
prayer, the spirit of their vocation, the poetry, art, architecture and 
music of their souls. The one aim in life was the salvation of souls. 
— The Monitor. 




CHIMES OF MISSION BELLS 79 



DANCES OF EARLY CALIFORNIA TIMES. 

The Spanish dances of early California times were the Con- 
tradanza, Quadrillas Espanolas, Varsoviana, Jota Aragonesa, 
Bamba, Jarabe, Son, Zamacueca, and Fandango. 

With the exception of the first three, which are round dances, 
the dances are danced by two persons ; the steps are very fancy, 
and for some castanets are used. It was customary after each 
change of step for the gentleman to recite a pretty little stanza 
complimentary to the lady, who in turn responded her refined 
appreciation also in verse, sometimes merely witty or comical 
rhymes were used. The music is very pleasing and lively. 




